Alphabet Soup
by Is That Rhetorical
Summary: Ingredients: The greatest detective the world has ever known. A young man with similar intelligence. The sister of a young police officer who just wants to make her mark in the industry. Mix well. Rating may change. LxOC.
1. A

**Zoh my god, it's not a Naruto fanfic. How is it possible? **

**My first attempt at anything besides Naruto (well, first attempt that I deemed worthy of other people's eyes), I'm hoping for a possitive response, or any response at all, that would be good too.**

**Reviews make me happy, alerts and favorites make me ecstatic.**

**Update August 7: I make amends to the above statement. Alerts and favorites make me ecstatic IF AND ONLY IF they are coupled with reviews. Otherwise they prompt very little response.**

**I have to thank my beta rukia23, because if not for her, I don't think I ever would have gotten the confidence to post this.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, althoug you wouldn't know if I did, because i love it just the way it is. If I wrote it, there would have been even fewer survivors and it would probably be a lot less brilliant.**

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A

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Asami stood outside the hospital door, double checking the number she'd written down at the front desk with the name on the plaque outside to make sure that she didn't barge in on some stranger instead of Yagami Soichiro. She couldn't help but overhear a little of the conversation on the other side of the door. Yagami talking to someone called Ryuzaki. The word investigation came up, so she waited for his voice to die down in case it was something classified before she cracked open the door. That gave her a little time to make a last minute attempt to look good _above_ the waist, where her "business woman" look of a skirt, tights and inch-and-a-half heals ended promptly with a large blue sweatshirt.

Inside, next to his bed, was his son, Light, no big surprise since classes at the university he was attending ended a few hours ago. Crouching on the chair next to him was a dark haired man with similarly colored eyes surrounded by dark circles like those of insomniacs, and dressed in a plain white shirt and jeans a size or two too big for his skinny frame. This man, presumably named Ryuzaki, seemed out of place next to Light in his neat university casual.

Light turned to the open door and waved while his father lifted his IV-free arm weakly. "I heard from my brother," she said awkwardly. "Since I haven't seen you in a while, I thought I should come by today, before visiting hours are over…"

"It's good to see you again, Asami. You haven't been over since Sayu was what, ten?" Light said.

"Eleven, just before you went into high school," she corrected. "But I see Yagami-san at the NPA sometimes, when my brother gets lazy and doesn't feel like walking home."

"I haven't met him," Light said, almost to himself. "But dad says that of all the detectives his age in the NPA, he's got the most potential."

Yagami senior nodded silently.

"Yeah," she said softly.

"What is your brother's name, Asami-san?"

The question caught her by surprise, especially since it consisted of the first words she'd heard Ryuzaki say. His voice was soft and eerily calm. "N-Nakamura Akira," she stuttered, mentally kicking herself for doing it. She hadn't stuttered since she was in Junior High, during her first time babysitting ten year old Yagami Light and six year old Sayu when their mother went out for the day.

Ryuzaki tilted his head back and pressed his thumb to his lip. "Yes, I remember him. Quite brilliant for only thirty years old. I had almost forgotten he had a sister, though. And a brother: Nakamura Tarou, twenty seven, correct?"

"Y-Yes."

"And that makes you the youngest: Nakamura Asami, twenty two."

"Twenty three. Well, almost. Next week."

"Yes. Happy birthday."

Asami wondered where he had gotten all this information on her and her family. _He must work for the police_.

The room was far too silent for several minutes. Asami tried to think of some kind of conversation, but instead of, "How are you feeling, Yagami-san?" what came out was, "Why are you sitting like that, Ryuzaki?"

Light answered for him with a chuckle. "Ryuga claims that it increases his reasoning ability by 40 percent. I say he's just making it up though."

"I am not, Yagami-kun. It really does."

Asami laughed.

"Um, excuse me?" A nurse poked her head in the door. "Visiting hours are over now," she said.

"So you're a detective?" she asked after she slid the door shut behind them. She had gotten the feeling it wouldn't have been the best idea to confirm her suspicions in front of a man who'd just had a stress related heart attack.

Light looked at her, surprised.

Ryuzaki, who had never taken his eyes off of her, asked, "Why do you say that, Asami-san?"

She took a deep breath and started walking to gather her thoughts. She'd never been great explaining why she knew things. That was more of Akira's forte.

Light and Ryuzaki followed her down the hall and into the elevator. She suddenly wished she'd left the sweatshirt behind when she left home, although it gave her something to shove her hands into.

"Well, Asami-san?"

With her hands securely hidden in the deep pocket, she said, "I grew up with one, my dad, who worked on all his cases at home. He always told me that while a detective was working on a case, he hardly ever stops thinking about it. My dad would space out, and that's how we could tell not to bother him because he was trying to work something out with an investigation or whatever it was. So if Ryuzaki says that sitting that way increases his reasoning ability by 40 percent, it would make sense that, if he was a detective, he would sit like that almost all the time. If he wasn't, and was in some other profession, there would be no need for 40 percent more reasoning ability while doing regular activities, like visiting his friend's father in the hospital."

Ryuzaki nodded. "Correct. Anything else?"

"Are you following the Kira case? I mean, besides whatever else you're working on right now. My brother says that no matter what case they're on, everyone he knows in the agency is trying to figure it out for themselves, even though L's working on it officially."

Ryuzaki seemed to take a moment longer than normal to answer. The door opened. "Yes, I am. It's very interesting to me, a criminal that kills with heart attacks. Can I assume that you are also following the case?"

"Of course. My brother wasn't allowed to stay on the case because my father said it wasn't worth risking his life for after the FBI agents were killed, but the Kira case is all we talk about in our house these days."

She tilted her head to one side and looked at Ryuzaki. He stared back. "You look like you have something else to say, Asami-san."

She turned away from him. Something crucial had just clicked. "Light called you Ryuga…" she muttered. "Which is different from what Yagami-san called you. And neither of them should be on first name basis with you, but Ryuzaki isn't a family name. It sounds more like a nickname or an alias, but it doesn't make sense that he would be addressing a fellow detective by a nickname, unless he normally goes by a nickname anyway. But there aren't any detectives in the police that go by them, even among colleagues.

"And the only reason I can think of to have two different names is if your real name isn't known to the public. But, if you aren't a well known detective, there's no reason to be deceiving people when it comes to your name, and you'd only need to do that if you were in a dangerous situation in the first place, one in which people knowing your real name would be a bad thing. In that case, you would have to change your name in different situations to keep people from finding out what your real name is, or to keep them from finding out another vital piece of information about you." Her voice was starting to rise in excitement.

"So Ryuzaki/Ryuga is someone who has to protect his identity and everything he can about himself, mostly his name because he's been giving different names depending on who he meets. So it can be assumed that he's in a position were average people knowing his name or identity would be bad, because, for example, if someone on the street or a friend is Kira, who can kill with just a name and a face, he could be killed by them, and he's also trying not to let Kira know that he's someone working on the case. But Yagami-san is also working on the case, and he's not being as careful as handing out fake names, partially because he can't since people already know him. So in order to be able to give different people different names, Ryuzaki/Ryuga has to be in a position so that he won't be recognized by anyone as having some other name or identity. And the one person capable of doing all that simultaneously is…L." She stopped, almost not realizing that she'd been talking out loud.

Light looked somewhat surprised, staring blankly for a moment before breaking into a smile. "I think you've gotten smarter than me, Asami. Ryuga had to tell me that he was L."

She blushed. "Please Light. I'm sure he did it before you had met him, otherwise he wouldn't have had to. I might be five years older than you, but you're still smarter than I am."

"Those were actually very good deductions, Asami-san," Ryuzaki/Ryuga/L said. "There were some holes, of course, but almost everything made perfect sense. Of course, if not for Yagami-kun's screw up," Light shot him a momentary glare, "I hope you wouldn't have been able to figure all that out, since I am L."

"Yeah, and I'm Kira," Light said with a laugh, although it didn't seem easy for him to joke about it.

Asami nodded a little. "It's not impossible."

Light looked at her in shock. "You don't honestly think that I'm Kira, do you, Asami?"

"Of course I don't, Light. I just said that it's not impossible. You're around the right age."

"Could you tell me what you mean by that, Asami-san?"

What was with that guy? _He must be testing me,_ she thought. _There's no way that L hasn't been able to figure out what my family already has. But why?_

She swallowed. "My brothers and I have been talking about it for a while now, Kira's age. We've determined that he's probably very young, high school or university student maybe, because he's hopeful enough to try and create an ideal world by killing off criminals. An adult, even my brothers' age, wouldn't think of doing that, at least not without killing people for their personal gain first. But someone too young, like a junior high student, might kill someone they don't like, and then never kill anyone else because they'd be too scared. Only someone right in the middle would be capable of being a mass murderer like Kira."

"Also very good. Yagami-kun used the phrase, "affluent child", which sums up what you just said." The intimidating eyes left hers to stare down the streets at a pair of approaching headlights.

"Now I have a question for you, L."

He looked back at her without answering verbally. "I know that you already knew those things you asked me about. Why were you testing me?"

"Please call me Ryuzaki."

"Aren't you going to answer me?"

"If you don't mind taking a drive," he said as a _very _nice car pulled up. "Good bye, Yagami-kun."

"Who is your friend, Ryuzaki?" An older man had stepped out of the car and opened a back door like a chauffer.

"Nakamura Asami," he answered simply, taking a step inside. "Well?" he asked. "This will be the quickest way for me to answer your question."

"A-alright."

The car was just as nice inside as out, from the leather seats to the tinted windows. The one thing out of place, well, two things really, were Ryuzaki and the green thermos in his… fingertips. When she looked closer, Asami could make out a Christmas theme to it, candy canes and Hershey kisses alternated around the plastic.

"So," he said after taking a loud slurp of whatever it was in the cup. "Before I can answer your questions, I have a few more of my own. First of all, do you mind me calling you Asami-san? I realize I shouldn't be on first name basis with you, but I called your brother Nakamura-san."

"No, I don't. You spoke to my brother personally?"

"Yes, once." Another loud sip preceded, "Second, do you believe that I'm the real L?"

The car jerked into motion before she answered, "Yes."

"And why is that?"

"Well, for one, if I were L, I wouldn't hire a scraggly young man to be my proxy. I'd pick someone, maybe English, just because of Sherlock Holmes."

"Hmm..." he said, taking another sip. "That's correct, but I don't particularly appreciate being called scraggly." Asami hid behind her hand to laugh. "And, for the record, I am English."

"Really? You don't have an accent..."

"Yes. About 25 percent, but I am English, and I lived there for about five years."

"What's the other 75?"

"Japanese, Russian and... something else. I was never entirely sure myself."

"Why are you telling me all of this? It can't be that you just feel like telling someone you've never met about your heritage. You're L, one of the most cautious people in the world."

"Why?" He stared into the small slit in the thermos. "Watari told me that in order to earn someone's trust you must build a friendly relationship. Was he correct, or should I try another approach? I didn't think a tennis match would be beneficial your case."

Asami did a double take. "You... you want _me_ to trust _you_? Why?"

"After meeting you, I hoped you would join the investigation team."

"Me?"

"Yes. With your early exposure to cases like this one, only on a far smaller scale, and access to both of your brothers' intellect, you would be an excellent addition to the team."

_Click, click. _Asami clipped her nail with her teeth, working her way around it. "I see. You couldn't have Akira on the team, so you're going for the next best thing."

"Not true," Ryuzaki said, surprisingly calm at the accusation. "I believe that Asami-san herself would be an excellent addition to our investigation even if not for her connection to Nakamura-san, although that is why I made my decision so quickly. He speaks well of both his siblings from what I understand, and your deductions several minutes ago have shown me that his praise is not misplaced. I would like you to consider the offer seriously, and give me an answer as soon as possible. We are very short members back at headquarters, which is why I also recruited Yagami-kun, despite my suspicion."

"And that's because he's related to someone who was in the task force. Did that make me a suspect, too?"

"Briefly, yes. But we narrowed it down to those being probed within the first five days, after which Kira conducted experiments on criminals in order to eliminate the FBI agents. Your family was probed from the tenth day onward."

"Is this more information to get me to trust you?"

"So suspicious, Asami-san. You have the right to know that you are no longer a suspect, and you will be told details like that if you join the investigation anyway."

"And if I don't want to?" she said defiantly.

"It is not top secret information, so an outsider knowing this is of little consequence. And besides," he said in a tone that suggested he was smiling, although his face remained blank. "If your current job and personality profiles are accurate, you are employed as an assistant to a private investigator taking on only rape cases, and are constantly looking for a different job to make use of your degree in criminal analysis. You don't like to waste opportunity, and look down upon those who do."

_He got me,_ she thought. _He's absolutely right. There's no way I can let L asking me personally to join the task force for what's turning out to be the biggest mass murder case in history pass me by._

_"You're right… I accept."_


	2. B

**Okay, I lied. I wrote this chapter really fast, and as soon as my awesome beta, rukia23 got through it, I wanted to post. I would still really like reviews, and I thank the one person who's put this on their alert list and shown me that it's good enough to continue, Iridessa. Thank you!**

**Disclaimer: Even after all this time, I still don't own Death Note. Just the Nakamuras.**

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

For exactly the fourteenth time since joining the Kira task force two weeks ago, Asami drummed her fingers nervously on her skirt in the elevator on the way up to this week's headquarters. Matsuda, or Matsui, depending on who you asked, didn't seem to notice her apprehension, as he never did unless he was the one causing it with his subtle gestures of affection.

For example, sitting closer to Ryuzaki on the hotel couches so she wouldn't have to.

There were definitely things about that man that impressed her to no end, his age, for one, and the amazing reasoning abilities he had already developed. And, because she was a woman, the bullet train metabolism.

But in contrast, there were also things that, without a doubt, made her nervous. As someone who disliked people staring at her, even if they were pictures, the dark eyes that did nothing but stare made her draw back behind Matsuda, who never failed to lean forward even though he had no problems hearing Ryuzaki's soft but firm voice.

Not exactly the best combination.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Next, about Misora Naomi," Matsuda said, reading from a list of topics that had already been drawn up. "Isn't it about time to open the case for public investigation?"

Ryuzaki answered quickly and decisively. "If it goes public, we shouldn't relate her disappearance to the Kira case and only release sketches of her, not photographs."

"But it's been four months since she disappeared," Aizawa countered. "I can't imagine she would still be alive."

"Even if she's dead, it's strange we haven't found her body. If we found one, that might lead us to something."

The door behind him opened and Asami peered around Matsuda's head to see Watari, calm and composed as ever despite the words that followed his entrance.

"Ryuzaki, turn on Sakura TV. There's a problem."

The television clicked on with a fizz, and immediately the voice of the announcer picked up in mid-sentence. "…other words, we are broadcasting this not only because we are Kira's hostages, but because it is our duties as reporters."

_Kira's hostages?!_ was Asami's initial response.

Within about thirty seconds, the six members of the task force present were gathered around the screen to listen to the broadcast.

"Please understand that this is not a fake, and we are not airing this to be sensationalistic."

Gasps echoed around the circle, as well as comments like, "What on Earth?"

"Four days ago, the director of this show received four tapes in the mail. Without a doubt, they were sent by Kira. The first tape predicted the deaths of two criminals who were recently arrested. The next day, those two criminals died, just as predicted."

_Predicting times of death… that has to be Kira. Who else could do that? But… this feels so wrong. Why would Kira do something like this so suddenly?_

"Kira instructed us to broadcast this second tape at exactly 5:59 today. It contains predictions of murders that will prove he is Kira. It also contains a message to the world."

"The whole world?!"

"Isn't it just another fake?"

"Impossible. There's no way anyone would fake something so horrible," Matsuda said shakily.

Sudden silence came over the room when they announced the video was beginning, and an obviously handwritten KIRA poster filled the screen. A barely audible click of equipment and then, heavily scrambled, "I am Kira. If this video was aired at exactly 5:59 pm on April 18, then it is now 5:59:47… 48… 49… please change the channel to Sun TV. The anchor, Mr. Hibima Kazuhiko, will die of a heart attack at exactly 6:00 pm."

"Change the channel."

The announcer was already dead by the time it changed, the other members of the station running frantically, yelling to stop shooting.

"No way!"

"Change it back. Bring me another TV, no, two more TVs," Ryuzaki said underneath Kira's voice.

"Mr. Hibima emphasized that Kira was evil in his broadcasts. This is his punishment. I will sacrifice one more person. My target is a commentator who is scheduled to appear live on NHN TV and who has condemned me. Mr. Komaizumi Seiji."

"Ryuzaki!" Matsuda said, waiting for instruction.

"Channel 24!" The slightest bit of urgency was beginning to creep into his calm voice.

Again, a man was slumped over in his seat at the table, someone was shaking him while another yelled at the cameras.

"Switch it back."

"Now you will all believe that I am Kira."

In the silence of the pause, Ryuzaki said, a little louder than usual, "If we don't stop this broadcast, something terrible will happen!" There was a run for the phones.

"Call Sakura TV!" someone yelled.

"It's no good. I know someone who works for the station, but his cell phone's turned off."

"Every number at the station is busy!"

"Damn it!" Ukita muttered, hurrying to the door. "I'll go to the station and stop them myself!"

And then the deep, scrambled voice continued.

"Please listen carefully. I do not want to kill innocent people. I hate evil and love justice. I think of the police as my allies, not enemies. My goal is to create a world without evil. If you want it, it can easily be accomplished. If you do not try to catch me, innocent people will not die. And even if you do not agree with me, if you refrain from publicizing your views in the media, you will be spared. And then, in a short time, the world will be changed for the better. I will change this filthy world into a new world with only people who are kind of heart.

"Just imagine a world protected by the police and myself, a world with no place for evil…"

The scrambled voice faded away and a young woman talking replaced it.

"We are canceling our scheduled program to broadcast live in front of Sakura TV. Someone has collapsed in front of the station!"

Asami came out of the daze she had entered during the flurry of action. The figure was clearly Ukita, who was clearly already dead.

"Kira got him?!" Aizawa half shouted before making a run for the door.

"Aizawa-san." Ryuzaki's voice slowed him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To Ukita. Where else?"

"You can't. Please calm down."

"Are you saying I should just sit here and watch TV?!"

"If this is Kira's doing, the same thing will happen to you if you go."

"Kira shouldn't be able to kill people without knowing their names!" he countered.

"The fake ID didn't help," Matsuda said, "Is it possible that Kira found out our real names?"

"That might be the case," Ryuzaki said slowly, "But if that were true, it would make more sense for him to murder everyone on the task force. According to my deductions, a name and a face were necessary.

"But after seeing this, I can't help but think that it must be possible for him to kill with just a face. What I can say for now is that Kira must be inside the station, or in a place where he can observe who goes into the station."

"If Kira is around the station, shouldn't we go immediately?"

"If we move without thinking now, we'll only get ourselves killed."

Aizawa grabbed Ryuzaki's shoulder, the only time anyone had touched him at all in the two weeks Asami had been with the task force. "Aren't you putting your life on the line to arrest Kira?"

"Putting you life on the line, and doing something that can easily kill you are complete opposites."

"What?!" Aizawa looked like he was ready to punch him for a moment, but then he noticed what Asami had a minute before.

Ryuzaki's hands were clamped so tightly on his calves that his arms were shaking. "Please understand. Ukita-san is dead. If you are killed too, Aizawa-san…" he trailed off, something Asami had never heard him do. The grip on his legs tightened.

Aizawa and Matsuda backed away, but Asami did the opposite. She wasn't sure what made her put her hand ever so lightly on Ryuzaki's shoulder; she never would have thought of it before.

He jerked in surprise under her hand, and she quickly removed it. "Sorry," she murmured. Then Kira went on.

"Will the police cooperate with me to create a new world? In four days, please give me your answer on the 6:00 news. For both "yes" and "no" I have two different tapes."

The voice was once again interrupted by a news flash from the front of the station. "A bus has just crashed into the front of the building!"

"In that, you could make sure no one saw your face going into the station," Ryuzaki commented.

"But who…?"

"Finally, the first police car has arrived on the scene."

"We're not the only ones," Matsuda said almost happily, "There are still people in the police department who'll stand up to Kira!"

Ryuzaki didn't seem nearly as excited. "Aizawa-san. You know Assistant Director Kitamura's cell phone number, correct?"

Without responding, Aizawa dialed it and handed his phone to Ryuzaki. Asami leaned in to hear what was being said on the other line. "Aizawa, I told you not to call me…"

"It's L," Ryuzaki said, cutting him off, "I have a favor to ask of you. There will be people connected to the police who will see this broadcast and act out of their own sense of justice. If no one takes charge, this will turn into a tragedy."

"Well… this case… we are," he said.

"The two police officers who rushed in have collapsed!" The camera shook as it was moved. "We're going to evacuate," the woman said shakily. "We'll continue our broadcast from another location."

There was silence on the Assistant Director's end. Finally, he said, "I understand, L. Tell me how I should control the situation."

The phone in Watari's pocket rang. "It's Yagami."

Ryuzaki held out his free hand. "Call him back and give me the phone," he instructed.

"It's urgent! Let me talk to Ryuzaki!"

"It's me, Yagami-san. I knew it; you were the one in the armored vehicle."

"Yes. I couldn't stand it. I've seized all the tapes. I'll bring them to headquarters."

"Are you well enough?"

"I've never felt better in my whole life," he answered quickly. "But more importantly, what should I do? It would be dangerous to leave through the front, but I might be okay in that bus."

"Wait one minute." He brought the phone in his left hand, Aizawa's, to his mouth. "Assistant Director Kitamura. The person who broke in was Chief Yagami. How are your preparations coming?"

Asami didn't hear his response, but she assumed it was a positive one when Ryuzaki switched phones again and said, "Yagami-san, in five minutes, leave in plain sight through the front doors." Ryuzaki then hung up and returned the cell phones to their owners.

A different announcer's voice echoed around the city. "The police are not responding to Kira's appeal, and demonstrating that they want to fight Kira. I-I'm going to gather my courage and say this: This is right! This is the stance a constitutional nation should take. My name is Tanakabara Kouki, anchor of NHN's Golden News. Tanakabara Kouki!"

Fifteen minutes later, the door opened. "Chief!"

"Ryuzaki," he said. "I'm sorry for acting on my own. I let my emotions get the better of me."

"It's all right."

Yagami held out a paper bag. "I have all the tapes and the envelope Kira sent them in."

"Thank you." He took it without letting his hand touch Yagami's.

Asami glanced over Ryuzaki's shoulder to look at the envelope he'd pulled out. "Aizawa-san, will you handle the examination of the tapes and envelope?"

"Yes. I know people in that department."

"Thank you. Using the copies, I'll examine the contents of the tapes. Would you like to help, Asami-san?" he asked before she could suggest it.

"Yes, please," she said, unable to keep the sound of an excited little girl out of her voice.

"Very well. Thank you."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Asami stared open-mouthed at the television screen while Ryuzaki rewound the last tape to play it again. Even without looking at her, Ryuzaki seemed to know her expression. "What do you think, Asami-san?"

"Unbelievable. I never thought…"

"What is it, Asami-san?" The video clicked as it finished rewinding.

"Kira… why would he suddenly do something that could only lead the task force to him? Kira's never shown us that he's human."

"Human, Asami-san?"

She wanted to smack herself for suggesting even slightly to the detective hunting Kira that the murderer was a god. "No, he is human, but, aside from the evidence, Kira's never shown us that this is anything more than an odd coincidence. I'm sure it was his plan eventually, to do something like this, but this is too early. It's only been a few months since Kira appeared. It doesn't make any sense."

"Have you considered that this may be a different Kira than the one we have been chasing?"

"What?"

"It seems to me," he said, "That the person who sent these tapes is not Kira. At least, not the one we've been investigating."

Asami stared at her hands. Now that he'd said it, everything else fell into place. A different Kira who was more impulsive than the original, who would be willing to kill police officers and innocent people, who would threaten the police to get what he wanted… and that would also explain the deaths of whoever showed up at the scene without hiding their faces.

"You're right. I hadn't thought of that." He always managed to make her feel like an idiot. "Everything fits if you look at it that way. What's the chance of it being a second one?" she asked, knowing how Ryuzaki loved his statistics.

He looked at the ceiling. "I'd say… 75 percent, at least. And this Kira has already given us clues to his identity, which I am confident will lead to his arrest."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Matsuda wasn't lying about Ryuzaki's sleeping pattern, Asami discovered, since she decided not to go home, an option everyone had, when she got up for a cup of hot chocolate at around 2:30. His arms hung by his sides on the chair and his cheek was pressed against his knee in a way that was almost comical. He didn't snore, but his mouth was open ever so slightly.

He suddenly stirred, bunching up the skin on his face even farther. Asami let a giggle slip, which woke him entirely, or so she thought.

He didn't acknowledge that she was in the room. He just sat there trying to calm his frantic breathing, his racing heart.

"Ryuzaki…?" she said when he'd gotten it down to pretty much it's normal rate, though his heart still pounded away inside his chest. "Are you all right?"

"Yes."

"Did I scare you?"

"No."

She looked at the marshmallows bobbing in her mug. "So what did? You woke up and looked like you'd seen a ghost." A thought struck her. "You had a nightmare, didn't you?"

"Yes… I suppose I did," he said reluctantly.

"And it was about what happened tonight, wasn't it? What happened?"

"Very perceptive, Asami-san."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Ryuzaki. Come on," she pressed gently, sitting next to him on the armrest and setting her drink on the table. "You can tell me." And then, borrowing one of his lines Matsuda often complained about, "That is, please tell me?"

He sighed and closed his eyes. "The second Kira came to headquarters and killed all of you. Even Watari." He gripped his calves again.

Asami pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. "Wh-what did he look like?"

Ryuzaki opened his eyes and smiled to himself. "Like one of Near's scary toys."

Asami didn't know what "near" was, or why it had scary toys, so she reached for the hot chocolate and took a sip.

A shiver, rather than a tremble, shook Ryuzaki. "Are you cold?" she asked.

"Yes." It never failed to amaze her how blunt he was.

She unwrapped the blanket from around herself and draped it around his shoulders. He took a glance at her loose shirt and pajama pants.

She caught the silent message. "It's okay. The bedroom's a lot warmer."

Just before she closed the door to her room, she saw Ryuzaki adjust the blanket over himself awkwardly, and a genuine smile flickered across her face for the first time since joining the investigation. Maybe Matsuda didn't have to be the barrier between them after all.


	3. C

**I'm going to ask, once again, for a review from someone, like Iridessa, or dreamerxofxroses, or xXRedemption's AngelXx, the three people who have this on their alert list. Anyone else is good too! I'm getting kind of depressed that no one has anything to say about this and over twenty people have read both chapters so far. So please review!**

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

To her disappointment, but not surprise, Ryuzaki was awake before Asami, and everyone else for that matter. He sat at the entertainment center and still had the blanket pulled around him, but when she approached him, he quickly took it off and held it out. "Thank you very much, Asami-san."

"I… I don't need it back, Ryuzaki. You can keep it."

He actually turned to look at her, indicating his surprise. She began to squirm a little under his gaze. "Like I said last night, there are plenty of them in the bedrooms."

"You never said that, Asami-san. You only said it was warmer."

She felt the back of her neck heat up, and not just from her shoulder-length chestnut hair she hadn't taken the time to pin up that morning. "No, but… that's what I meant."

He looked back at the blank screen. "I see. My apologies."

"What?"

"I misunderstood you, and I apologize."

"But why? You didn't do anything wrong."

"Being a detective, and the greatest one in the world at that, I am required to understand the intentions of others. Failing to do so is something I must apologize for."

"Oh… um, all right." She took the blanket from his still outstretched arm and started to fold it absently, smaller and smaller until it was little more than a ball of fabric.

The door opened.

"How is it coming, Ryuzaki?" Yagami asked as soon as he came in.

"Very interesting videos, wouldn't you agree, Asami-san?" He didn't wait for her to respond. "If the NPA's response was yes, the instructions were to broadcast video three, and if no, video four.

"Video three stated the terms for cooperation. Simply put, more criminals were to be shown on the news, particularly those who had taken advantage of the defenseless, even if their crimes were only minor. Kira would be the judge of those people. He also wanted high ranking police officials and L to appear on public television to announce their cooperation, so in case we do anything suspicious, he can kill us."

"And what about the fourth video?"

"It's worded a bit differently, but he's really saying the same thing. Since the answer is obviously "no", please give Sakura TV permission to run video four on April 22."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

On the 22nd, Asami couldn't bring herself to watch Sakura TV with her brothers, taking it all in like the sports they'd never been interested in as teenagers. She was of course forbidden from telling her brothers or her parents who'd just moved to the other side of Tokyo that she knew L personally. So, she had to generate an excuse about not feeling well in order to sit out the long awaited event, since she couldn't exactly confess how upsetting it was to imagine Ryuzaki convulsing and then going limp like Lind L. Taylor. Even so, she could still hear the deeply scrambled Japanese floating up the stairwell, followed by their debating over what was being said.

She got the same sinking feeling when she saw Soichiro's face coming into the hotel room the next morning. "It's just as we thought," he said with little prompting. "World leaders have talked it over, and they're demanding that L, the real one, appear on TV. After doing next to nothing to help with the case, they don't even try to find a way around it. Kira says jump, they ask how high."

Asami fidgeted in her seat. "We can't say we really expected anything different."

"No. Their decision is both right and reasonable. If it's between me and the General Director, of course it should be me."

"But that means you'll be…" Matsuda didn't have to finish the sentence. Everyone knew how it ended.

_Killed_.

Unfazed, Ryuzaki broke off a piece of cake with his fork. "What worries me more is that, when I appear on TV, if Kira knows nothing about me," he said, sticking the cake in his mouth. "How does he intend to determine whether or not I am L?"

A smile twitched at the corners of Asami's mouth against her will. She could see Ryuzaki now on public television, crouching in his seat, eating a slice of cake and holding his fork with only his thumb and forefinger. If she hadn't come to the conclusion herself, she never would have believed that Ryuzaki was L.

"I'll do what I can to make him believe me, of course, and hope that police chiefs aren't killed because I don't seem enough like Kira's vision of L. That's what bothers me. I'm really not sure how Kira will figure it out... but we still have three days to think of a plan. I also am unhappy about being killed by an opportunist using Kira's name."

Eyes widened, jaws dropped, and surprised gasps echoed around the set of couches and chairs surrounding the coffee table. "What do you mean by that, Ryuzaki?"

"It occurred to me while watching these videos that the Kira who sent them to Sakura TV is highly likely to be a fake. Or, rather, a second Kira."

"A second Kira?"

"Yes," he answered simply. "It was the first video that made me think of it. It was meant to be viewed by Sakura staff only, and predicted deaths of several criminals that died three days later, in order to convince the staff that it was Kira who sent them."

"But if the predicted victims died at the correct times, I'd say that's pretty convincing," Matsuda said slowly.

"Not necessarily. Those two cases were only reported in chat shows and women's magazines, and were clearly different from Kira's victims so far. The real Kira would have no reason to go after such minor cases," he said as he poked the strawberry on his plate. "But if you assume there is a second Kira, he couldn't use any criminals that the real Kira might kill before the set time. If the times were off, then the videos would be considered fakes, and would never be aired."

"Ryuzaki," Yagami cut in. "What is the probability of there being a second Kira."

"Over 70 percent." He ignored the various noises of surprise and continued to himself. "I don't like his methods. It's not like Kira."

"Not like Kira?"

"Before now, besides people chasing him, the real Kira avoided killing innocent people. Kira's motive is not to create a dictatorship based on fear, but to change society gradually."

Aizawa looked at a sheet of paper in a small Ziploc bag. "So, these fingerprints might actually…"

"Yes, I'd say they definitely could be the second Kira's. It would be smart not to leave any prints at all, but this Kira seems far less intelligent than the original. It might be that he didn't think the packaging would be confiscated by the police." He took the bag from Aizawa and held it above his head with the tips of his fingers. "Interesting," he muttered, tipping his head to the right, "How little they are."

"Little?" Asami asked. She held out her hand for the bag.

"Yes. Like a child's, or a small woman's." Instead of placing the bag in her palm, he touched one of the prints to the tip of her finger, without letting his hand touch hers, of course. Then he dropped it into her hand. "Anyway, if we make the assumption that there is a second Kira, even if the two Kira's don't kill using the same method, capturing one will most likely lead to the other's arrest as well. And also, assuming that the real Kira is smarter than the second Kira, the chances are high that he knows this too."

"So it's a race," Asami said. She was getting excited. "The real Kira will be trying to find the fake before we do, to team up with him and prevent him from getting caught. Or, if that doesn't work, kill him before he messes up and reveals how they kill."

"Precisely. Yagami-san, may I request your son's assistance with the investigation?"

"Does that mean that he is no longer under suspicion?"

"No, it's not because I'm not suspicious, but I have faith in his reasoning abilities, and I think he would be a valuable asset to the investigation."

Soichiro's face fell. "I suppose if he agrees, I have no reason to stop him."

"Thank you. I'm fairly sure that your son will agree to this, considering his strong sense of justice." He was planning something, he had to be, with that childish smile of his hiding behind his thumb. "However, please do not tell him that this Kira may be different from the one we began chasing when this case was first brought to light."

So that was it. The task force agreed to keep Light in the dark, if somewhat reluctantly.

"What are your thoughts regarding Light-kun, Asami-san?" Ryuzaki suddenly asked before he took a sip of his coffee.

She turned away from the conversation she was trying to overhear between Light and his father. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Your thoughts on Light-kun. I understand that you have a fairly close relationship with him. He told me a few days ago that he regards you as an older sister. And yet…" He took a bite of cake. "You seem to be considerably less biased about him than the other members of the task force, myself and Watari excluded of course. Why is that?"

Asami pulled at the skin around her thumb nail. "It's true that I'm pretty close to Light, and I think of him as a sibling too. But at the same time, I can see that he might be Kira, and I want to think about it objectively. I don't want him to be Kira, but I can see how it would be possible." She took a calming breath since she'd begun to ramble. "I just want the case to move forward, and if that means that Light is Kira, then Light is Kira."

"I see," he said in what she thought was a thoughtful tone, but she couldn't be sure. "It isn't so much that you have an unbiased opinion, but that, despite your closeness to Light-kun, you are able to think about it from L's point of view."

"I wouldn't say that. I don't know if I could ever get inside your head, Ryuzaki."

"Yes, that would be a common response. I've been told many times before that I am a rather odd individual. However, I wasn't talking about me personally, but rather the person trying to solve this case." He took a rare moment to finish chewing and swallowing before continuing. "Either way, considering that even Matsuda-san, who, if I understand correctly, only met Yagami-san's family a few times, is reluctant to accept the fact that I suspect Light-kun, your open mindedness is admirable."

Asami vaguely hoped that by some off chance Ryuzaki didn't notice her face flushing at his compliment. In truth, she wasn't as open minded as she pretended to be. If Light was Kira, then he was Kira, she'd been honest about that part. But she sincerely wished with almost every fiber of her being that the sweet, intelligent little boy she'd grown up playing with on Saturday afternoons didn't posses the supernatural power that was making hundreds of criminals drop dead.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Thank you, Yagami-kun," Ryuzaki said while engaging in rare human contact to shake Light's hand.

"No problem. I want to catch Kira as much as you do, Ryuga."

"Please call me Ryuzaki here." Everyone else proceeded to hand out their fake names, including Asami, whose last name was now Nishimura. Light chuckled at both hers and his fathers.

"I see… so I should be Asahi Light, then?"

"Yes. I'll be calling you "Light-kun" while we're here."

"So I was right," Light said to Asami. "Ryuga… Ryuzaki did invite you to join the investigation that night."

"How did you figure that one out?"

He laughed again. Something had put him in a particularly good mood. "Well, I know Ryu…zaki," he said, making sure he didn't slip up over the name again, "Isn't someone who would take a woman for a drive without some other motive, and considering you have a degree in criminology, as well as three family members who have been police officers at one point or another, you'd be even better on the task force than me."

"Right on the money, as usual Light. Although I'm not sure I agree with me being better than you. I might have graduated college, but Ryuzaki doesn't make _you_ feel like an idiot." Another short laugh.

Before Light could say anything else, an impatient looking Ryuzaki cut in, "Shall we begin?" There was no word of protest, so he continued. "I'd like you to take a look at all of the evidence we've gathered so far, and view this unaired video tape sent with the others broadcasted on Sakura TV earlier this week. Understand that removing the documents from this room and taking notes is prohibited."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Everyone's eyes were on Light as he sifted through the evidence and played the tape. Asami methodically stood off to one side so she could see little more than Light's haircut. Although it wasn't a profile view, she could tell that his mouth was slightly open and that the rest of his features held a look of complete disbelief by the time the video finished. Then his eyes shifted to one side to look at the majority of the task force out of his peripheral vision. After that, he seemed calmer.

Until Ryuzaki walked up to him, anyway.

"Well, Light-kun?" he said expectantly. "Were you able to figure anything out?" The way he said it was all too obvious, in Asami's opinion. Having his finger touching his lips, making him look rather innocent, didn't help.

Light was turned away from her, so Asami couldn't see his expression, but she was pretty sure she saw him grab the armrest to pull himself up with a little too much vigor. Maybe he really was…

She shook it off when he spoke. "There might be more than one person with Kira's powers." As Ryuzaki himself had said before, it was hard to believe that Kira would say something that might lead to L surviving the demand made for him to appear on TV.

"Kira's powers? What do you mean, Light?" his father asked, overreacting slightly.

"At least, there's a good chance that this isn't the same Kira we've been dealing with before now," he said, pointing to the screen with his thumb. "The Kira we've been chasing wouldn't predict the murders of people like the ones in this video. And, if we're assuming that Kira needs both a name and a face to kill someone, how does that explain the men who were killed after showing up at the TV station?"

"Like you said, Light-kun, we also suspect that there is a second Kira."

Light closed his eyes for a moment and crossed his arms when they reopened. "So you knew, Ryuzaki? You knew there was a second Kira and you were just testing me?"

"It wasn't a test, Light-kun. It isn't nearly as convincing if I'm the only one who thought that there could be a second Kira. Since you've deduced the same, it's greatly strengthened and much more convincing. You are a great help, Light-kun.

"So it's decided. We must first stop the second Kira. It's clear he sympathizes with Kira, and isn't as smart as him. Because of that, we may be able to stop him with a fabricated message from the real Kira."

"Impressive, Ryuzaki," Light said. "I was thinking myself that would be the best move."

He gave the slightest nod to acknowledge that Light's comment was heard before he said, "So, Light-kun, for this, I'd like you to play the part of the real Kira."

"M-me?" he stammered.

"Yes. With your abilities, it should be fairly simple. We don't have much time. Would you please write a message from the "real" Kira to use during tonight's news?"

From script-writing, to reservation-making, to graphic designing, everyone was busy doing something in less than five minutes. Asami sat at a laptop, testing different fonts, staying as far away from "Old English Five" as possible, and finally decided on a fancy cursive. While adjusting the size and centering it, she overheard Ryuzaki and Light discussing the message.

"How's that, Ryuzaki? I tried to think about it from Kira's point of view."

The detective held the paper to his face with his thumb and index fingers. "It's very well written… but if you don't take out the part that says, "I don't care if you kill L"…" he lowered it so Light could see his face. "I'll die."

Light laughed. "Well, when I got in Kira's shoes, I thought he'd definitely want L dead. It was a joke, you can fix it so you won't be killed."

"Yes. Aihara-san, the script is ready."

"All right." He took the paper from Ryuzaki and handed Asami a USB flash drive. "The background is on there. It just needs the lettering."

"Right, thank you," she said. She fitted the drive into the laptop and did a quick copy and paste to get the loopy "KIRA" onto the slightly shimmering backdrop Aizawa had made remarkably fast.

In just half an hour, they were gathered around the TV to watch the broadcast of their handy work.

"In this serious turn of events, another Kira has appeared in response to the one that sent in videos to Sakura TV and forced them to be broadcast. This individual claims to be the real Kira, and is demanding that every TV station air this message. The police have approved the airing of the video," the announcer finished, which everyone in the room found ironic to some extent.

Asami and Aizawa's image appeared on the screen and the computerized voice said, "I am Kira. I am the true Kira, and the person who sent the video which aired on Sakura TV yesterday was not Kira. I believe the individual who claimed to be me is my supporter and is speaking on my behalf. I am grateful.

"However, the killing of innocent people is against my ideals. If the person who claims to be me agrees with me and wishes to help me, they should refrain from taking foolish actions on their own and work to understand my purpose. If they do not heed my warning, I will be forced to pass judgment on him."

"Good work, everyone," Ryuzaki said after the screen filled with snow. "With any luck, the second Kira will respond within a few days, which will only bring us closer to arresting him."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Sure enough, the second Kira did exactly as Ryuzaki said he would. Just a few days later, Watari's icon appeared on the laptop with the news, "Ryuzaki, Sakura TV's received a reply from the second Kira."

"It's here!" Matsuda exclaimed, hurrying over to the computer resting on the small coffee table.

"I'm bringing over the tape and the envelope it came in, but I'll stream a copy of the contents to your computer."

The poorly drawn gothic "KIRA" they were all familiar with filled the screen, and after a slight delay and click of machinery, the deep scrambled voice said, "Kira-san, thank you very much for your response. I will do as you say. I want to meet you, Kira-san. Although I don't think you possess the eyes, I won't kill you."

Everyone leaned forward. "Did he just say, "Don't possess the eyes"?"

Asami caught a glimpse of Ryuzaki's face. His eyes were even wider than usual and his mouth hung open. She figured she probably looked the same. All humans had eyes, so what could this Kira possibly mean by the original one "not having" them? Was it code for something?

"Please think of a way for us to meet without getting caught by the police. When we do meet, we can confirm it by showing each other our Shinigami."

Now _that_ got a response. Matsuda and Aizawa, who rarely agreed on anything, gasped "Shinigami?" in unison, while Asami just stared at the computer, thinking she couldn't possibly have heard it correctly. It wasn't until Ryuzaki let out a startled cry and threw his arms in the air that she realized it must have been "Shinigami", to scare Ryuzaki so much that he tipped his chair over, and onto her foot, too.

She landed hard, Ryuzaki just in front of her. "Asami-chan!" she heard Matsuda say, not oblivious to the affectionate suffix he'd recently started to add to her name. Aizawa took a more general stand, asking both of them if they were all right.

Asami sat up a second before Ryuzaki and muttered, "Yeah, ouch."

He, on the other hand, completely ignored Aizawa's question and stared at the static filled screen. "Sh-shinigami? Do you expect me to accept that such things exist?" He was shaking again, just like during the Sakura TV incident, as the night would forever be known among the police.

"N-no way. There's no way something like that's real," Matsuda said uneasily.

"He's right, Ryuzaki," Light said, calmer than anyone else in the room. "There's no way Shinigami exist."

Ryuzaki turned his head slowly to look at him. "Kira also made prisoners write notes that suggested the existence of Shinigami," he said, voice as level and calm as ever.

"If that's the case," Soichiro said, "Then shouldn't we assume this is the same Kira that we began chasing in the beginning? The same person using the same words…"

"That's impossible, Dad. If this were the original Kira, he wouldn't have responded to the video we created. The real Kira wouldn't go along with our plan and let L escape when he was going to die on TV in just a few days."

Asami's eyes moved from Light to Ryuzaki, who appeared to be calming himself by lightly pinching the bridge of his nose. "Are you okay, Ryuzaki?" she asked again.

He barely gave her a nod of acknowledgment before going on to contradict Aizawa's suggestion of the two Kira's teaming up. He climbed back into his chair and continued, "The second Kira is acting on his own desire to meet Kira."

"That's right, this person is only driven by that desire." Light folded his arms before continuing. "Maybe the term "Shinigami" is referring to their ability to kill people? "We can confirm it by showing each other our Shinigami." We could interpret that as them showing each other their ability to kill, in order to prove their identities."

"That's true," Ryuzaki said slowly. "At least, we can think of this "Shinigami" term as having some significance between Kira and the second Kira." Another video response was suggested in order to make the word "Shinigami" more clear, but he said, "No, we'll leave this to Kira and the second Kira.

"We can assume that the second Kira is satisfied with the response from the real Kira, even if he knows it was made by the police. He succeeded in getting Kira's attention, and therefore has used terminology that only Kira would understand. We'll air this video on the six o'clock news. I'm sure that Kira is watching the exchange between the second Kira and the one we created with great interest. Since he is trying to avoid the second Kira and the police coming into contact with each other, it's possible the real Kira may send in a response this time."

"But what if Kira doesn't reply?"

"I've thought about what the second Kira would do in that case. He would probably broadcast another secret in order to manipulate the real Kira." A smile pulled across his face. "That would be interesting."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Just two days later, there was yet _another_ message from the second Kira, a video and an old diary. Before Light arrived at the hotel, it was passed around so that everyone could look at it. Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the "confirmed our Shinigami at the Tokyo Dome", so only Ryuzaki and Asami read the entire thing.

"Ryuzaki?" Asami said as she scanned the entries.

"Hmm?"

"I've actually been thinking about this for a while, but… we've been referring to the second Kira as "him", both Kira's actually, and…"

"I see," he said before she could finish. "You believe that the second Kira is a woman."

"Yes. It's mostly this diary. A lot of these things are very woman exclusive, and the diary itself… even if they just wrote it a few days ago and pretended it was last years, I'd think that only a woman would come up with using a diary to send a message to Kira."

"Now, you said it was _mostly_ the diary that makes you think it's a woman. But the other videos made you think the same thing?"

She nodded since Ryuzaki was almost looking at her. "To me, the way this person is going about meeting Kira is almost obsessive. And while most young men outgrow obsessions with idols by the time they reach the age we're considering Kira to be, women don't necessarily do that. And some of the things that were said in the videos made the second Kira sound like they had a crush on the real Kira."

"That would also explain why the victims the second Kira used in their predictions were celebrities who'd committed crimes. A woman is much more likely to know about crimes like that off hand than a man." He picked a chocolate out of the box in front of him and put it in his mouth. "I'd say it's fairly likely that the second Kira is a woman."

"You want Light's opinion, don't you?"

"Yes, it would be nice to have, as always."

When the teenager did get to the hotel room, he wasted no time. "He wants the diary broadcasted?"

"Yes," his father said. He handed Light the flimsy sheet of paper.

"Look at the entry for the 30th," Ryuzaki said from his chair.

Asami watched his eyes drop to the bottom of the page and then widen. Anyone would have done that, she assured herself. It was when his eyes flickered up and he had the same reaction that made her worry.

"What do you make of it, Light-kun?"

_He's doing that thing again_, Asami thought. _He's looking at Ryuzaki like he's trying to decide how much he should say. _

"For now," he said, "All I can say is that this person is stupid."

"Yeah," Matsuda said. "It's obvious that they want to meet with Kira at the Giants game that just happens to be on the same day this year."

"Broadcasting this will cause a panic, and the game will be cancelled. Don't they realize that?" Soichiro asked.

Ryuzaki walked back over to the table and grabbed another chocolate before sitting down. "To be honest, it's so dumb that I'm not sure how to react to it. If we broadcast this diary, we'll have to announce that the game will be cancelled. But if we don't broadcast it, the second Kira won't go."

"And if we cancel the game, he might get angry, and then who knows what he'll do."

"That won't be a problem. The second Kira seems to worship Kira. It should be fine if we believe their promise to our fake Kira that he won't kill unnecessarily.

"Anyway, we should broadcast the diary and announce that the game is cancelled, along with the fact that we'll be monitoring the roads leading to the Tokyo Dome. And last, we'll send a reply from our fake Kira, agreeing to meet."

"Do you really think they'll show up even with such tight security?"

"I doubt the real Kira would, but I'm not sure about the second Kira." He picked up the sheet with his two fingers while he held his coffee cup in the other. "We don't know how stupid they really are, or if they are as stupid as they seem. I'll try to find any other hidden messages in this.

"If they're using a code that only those with the "Shinigami" ability that Light-kun suggested, I won't be able to understand it. But we should be sure to keep watch over all the other locations mentioned. On the twenty-second and twenty-fourth, it says they're meeting a friend in Aoyama and Shibuya respectively. Although we can't realistically expect any remarkable results, we should watch for people with notebooks in Aoyama and clothes stores in Shibuya."

He set the paper back on the table. "We'll arrange for more surveillance cameras to be placed in both Aoyama and Shibuya, and we'll need as many undercover police officers in both places on the days mentioned."

"I'll go," Matsuda said, "Since I'll fit right into the crowd at Aoyama and Shibuya." He leaned in closer to Asami, who was sitting next to him on the couch. "And Asami-chan can come with me."

She tried to wiggle away from him but was stopped by the armrest. "With what you're implying, I think I'd rather stay behind."

"Aw, that's so mean, Asami-chan."

"I'll go too," Light interrupted.

"Light…"

"It'll be okay, Dad," he said reassuringly. "I go there sometimes anyway, and I'm the one least likely to look out of place with Matsui-san. And, the only person the second Kira is interested in is Kira."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Are you planning to go to Aoyama and Shibuya with them, Asami-san?" Ryuzaki asked just after Light left the hotel.

"I…I don't know. It's still a few weeks away. Do I really have to decide now?"

"It would be helpful for me to know." He flattened the wrappers the chocolates had been in before putting the last one in his mouth.

"And I'd like to know too, Asami-chan," Matsuda said, cornering her again.

She sighed. "As long as you're not going to pretend to be my boyfriend, I guess I'll go too. You'll want us to keep an eye on Light while we're there, right Ryuzaki?"

"Correct. It would help to have both of you watching, but if you don't want to, Asami-san, I understand."

"I don't have any problems going with them, I just want Matsuda to keep his distance."

"I don't think it would be too much to ask for him to agree to that," Ryuzaki answered for him.

"H-hey!"

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Why do you hate me, Asami-chan?"

Somehow, Matsuda had managed to get in the elevator with her without Aizawa or the chief. She sighed. She'd been trying to avoid this conversation, but…

"I don't hate you, Matsuda," she said sincerely, but she was unable to look at him.

"Do you already have a boyfriend, then? Would you like me if I stopped flirting with you?"

"I _do_ like you, Matsuda," she insisted. "I just… don't really want a boyfriend right now."

"Oh. Why not?" When she didn't reply, he covered his mouth in embarrassment. "Oops! I forgot you're not supposed to ask women stuff like that. Sorry!" he said quickly.

Smiling, she said, "Its okay," before she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

Matsuda scratched the back of his head and flushed about five shades of red. "H-hey, Asami-chan. Don't say you don't want a boyfriend if you're going to do that…"

"Sorry, Matsu," she said softly, using his relatively new nickname. "I'm just an affectionate person. Before you know it, I'll be kissing Ryuzaki, too."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Remember, LK likes reviews. If you review, you get a virtual reward!**


	4. D

**Yay, a review! Not yay, it's from my cousin! But anyway, thanks to all who have this story on Alerts, CAWM, Iridessa, XxXsyderzXxX, dreamerxofxroses, and xXRedemption's AngelXx. Thanks XxXsyderzXxX for your review, I'll reply at the end.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. I am not nearly brilliant enough to come up with such a seemingly tightly plotted story as I go. Obata Tsugumi is just amazing that way.**

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Good morning, Kira-chan!" Asami called down the steps of their two level apartment while she fiddled with the top button on her shirt.

"I told you not to call me that anymore," was the irritated response. "I wouldn't put it past the police to bug the apartment, since L was pretty sure Kira was getting police information. What will they think with you calling me "Kira"? Besides," he grumbled. "Since when are you a morning person?"

"Since when are you not a morning person?" she shot back. "And let's see, if they heard me, I think they'd have to go digging in the family files we know they have. I've been calling you "Kira-chan" since I was two, and no psychopath going by the same name is going to stop me." She walked by his seat and ruffled his hair.

"Hey, hey, cut it out!" He frantically patted and smoothed his hair down to its original position.

"Oh, I see! You're going on a date with Emiko! Is that why you're not eating breakfast?"

He seemed to get over his bad mood right then and there, and said, "Yeah. It's a surprise, though, so when she comes up, you can't tell her. She thinks we're just going for a walk and getting something along the way."

"Something like what, McDonalds?"

"No! I don't know, I made it up."

"You're setting a bad example, Kira-chan. Do your research before you… where's my cereal?"

"I think Tarou took it when he came back for the rest of his stuff yesterday," he said, opening the newspaper nonchalantly.

"What?!"

"He said Hana likes it too or something like that." Akira turned the page and seemed disgusted with something there.

"So he stole my cereal for her… he's going to spoil her if he keeps going like that. And I'll kill him, too," she added as an after thought.

"You on your monthly, Sami-chan?" he asked, like it wasn't an awkward question.

She sighed. "Yes. Why else would I be making such a fuss about a half-empty box of cereal?"

"Dunno," he said. He turned the page in the paper one more time and then tossed it onto the table looking frustrated with it. "Anyway, why so dressed up? Do _you_ have a date today?"

"I sure hope not," she said with a glance down at her clothes. _She_ didn't think she was dressed up. Casual black denim, a collared tee-shirt, and a jacket didn't quite embody the word "dressy". Then she realized that was exactly why he would consider her dressed up, when she left the house every other day in a suit.

"We're going to Aoyama today, for the investigation. I don't think "business casual" would be a very good look down there."

He laughed. "Well, now that's told me everything."

"What?"

"Today's the 22nd. Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about; you watched _that_ broadcast with us."

She sat down and got ready for one of his explaining rampages. They seemed to run in the family.

"The diary read that the first person who claimed to be Kira, who was probably _a_ real Kira, had gone to the Tokyo dome to see the game last year on the 30th and "confirmed their Shinigami". They used the same word in that other broadcast, to tell Kira how they would know each other, and it was probably hinting that Kira and the other Kira would meet there

"But Aoyama and Shibuya were also mentioned in the diary, and since I've spoken to L, I know that's the kind of thing he would notice and figure that there was a chance that the contact could happen at the other locations too. He'd want to have as many police officers as possible undercover, and as many people from the investigation team too, as well as additional cameras and other security. From all that, when you say you're going to investigate there on the 22nd, it's only natural for me to think that your new employer is L, because all other investigators have withdrawn from the case."

"There's no point in pretending you're not exactly right. You understand why I couldn't tell you though, right? And why I have to ask you not to tell anyone, especially not Dad."

"Right, I know. I assume L told you to keep that secret, and I know Dad would freak out anyway. _I'm_ not going to be a tattle tale," he said with a childish grin. Then he suddenly frowned. "That explains why you haven't been getting my calls… but don't you think you could explain the situation with Mom to L? I'm sure if he knew he'd let you do something, just in case…"

"He already knows," she said. She flopped into one of three chairs around the kitchen table, opposite her older brother. "But he said, "No cell phones on at the hot- headquarters." It's for security."

"I know that. I'm not an idiot, Asami." No nicknames. He was serious. "I just think that he could have a little compassion and understand what's happening in our family right now…"

"He _does_ understand, Akira!" She was almost shouting now, hands slapped onto the table. "He can't make exceptions just because Mom has cancer!"

Her hands flew to her mouth. Since their mother's diagnosis the year before, the C-word had been major taboo. Saying the word aloud was unthinkable.

Akira stared at her, mouth agape in shock. "I… I can't believe I just said that. I'm so sorry…"

He averted his eyes. "Good thing Dad moved away with her. He'd… lose it."

She bit her lower lip and muttered, "Yeah." Then she pushed herself up from her seat and headed out the door with her jacket, abandoning the bowl of freshly poured cereal at her place setting.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Much to her surprise, Matsuda kept the promise that Ryuzaki made for him at both Aoyama and Shibuya. He even went along with Light's spur of the moment lie about him looking for a girlfriend as they walked with the group of university students. Only being one year out of college herself, Asami found she fit right in.

However, when they gathered around the tables in the current hotel on the 25th, there were no results. "All that's left is the Dome on the 30th," Aizawa said, although Asami didn't think he was convinced.

Then, as if to mock what had just been said, Ryuzaki's laptop beeped and Watari's "W" flashed on the screen. "Ryuzaki, Sakura TV just got another video from the second Kira. It's postmarked the 23rd," he added.

"I have found Kira. Thank you everyone at Sakura TV and the police."

_If it was postmarked on the 23__rd__, then it would have had to be at Aoyama. But… it could have been before then too, right?_

"This isn't good," Aizawa said. He leaned even farther toward Ryuzaki's computer.

"Does that mean that Kira and the second Kira have met and joined forces…?"

Ryuzaki stirred his coffee and said, "No, we can't know that for sure yet. The second Kira only mentioned "finding" Kira. They may not have actually met as of the 23rd. Now that we've come this far, the only option we have left is to have the police appeal to the second Kira. The police will need to offer the second Kira a favorable deal so they will reveal Kira's identity."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"If Kira doesn't already know who you are, it isn't too late," the announcer representing the police said later that night. Asami sat on a couch in the large hotel suite near Ryuzaki's armchair, instead of the one at her apartment with her brother. "You must not approach Kira for fun or out of curiosity. If you meet Kira, you will almost certainly die. Think carefully about the value of human life. Give us all the information you have about Kira and atone for your crimes."

When the broadcast finished, Asami got up to go to sleep, but Ryuzaki's soft voice stopped her. "Is there a particular reason you've decided to stay here overnight for the past few days, Asami-san? Has something happened with your brothers?"

She was grateful she wasn't facing him, for she was nervously chewing on her lip. "No, of course not. Everything's fine."

"I hope you'll forgive me if I don't believe you."

She hesitated, turning around to look at him. He was still looking at the TV screen, although he didn't seem particularly interested. "No, it's all right. I wouldn't believe me either."

"But you're insisting that it's true?"

She avoided the question and just said, "Goodnight."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

By the next morning, a stack of videos containing the footage from Aoyama on the 22nd had been sifted through and placed off to one side. Aizawa and Matsuda couldn't believe that Ryuzaki was bent on going through all of it.

"You're going to look at all of the footage from the 22nd by yourself?"

"Yes," he said, blunt as ever. "I find it very likely that the two Kiras made contact there, and accordingly, I want to check all of them myself. And, Yagami-san, please ask Mogi-san to tail Light-kun so we can keep an eye on him."

"You want him to be followed?" he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yes. In the case that Light-kun is Kira, the second Kira may try to contact him. Since Light-kun doesn't know that Mogi-san is a member of the task force yet, he is the most natural choice for this job." He hit "Play" again and watched more people passing by the camera set up on the street corner.

"So… when exactly does Ryuzaki sleep?" Aizawa asked in an undertone. The question was directed at Asami, but Matsuda took the liberty of answering for him.

"I saw him sleeping in a chair in that weird position a few days ago. Seriously!" he said when Aizawa gave him a funny look.

"Surprisingly enough, he's right, Aizawa," Asami added.

"… weird…"

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Ryuzaki," Watari said through the laptop.

"Another video, Watari?"

"Yes. It says this will be the last one."

"Hello?" Light called from just outside the hotel room door.

"Come in," Ryuzaki said after Light had begun to do so. He had the remote in his right hand and his left hovered over a box of doughnuts. "Excellent timing, Light-kun. The second Kira has just sent us what seems to be their last response."

"That was fast," he muttered as he shrugged off his bag and coat.

"Yes, it was." He pressed a button and the sloppily written "KIRA" appeared over the program in the background one last time.

"I thank the police for their advice, as I have decided to stop searching for Kira. However, I still wish to help Kira, and I hope he will consider me an ally in his aim to create a perfect world. I will begin by punishing criminals Kira has not yet targeted, and I will spread my powers to others worthy of it, and encourage them to join me. We will help Kira make the world a better place."

"After seeing this," Ryuzaki began. "I feel that Kira and the second Kira have met."

"Why do you say that, Ryuzaki?" Light asked slowly.

"I thought you would get the same impression I did, Light-kun." He sounded disappointed.

Taking a bite of the doughnut he'd finally picked halfway through the video, he said, "After wanting to meet Kira so much, the sudden 180, and then saying he'll punish criminals Kira hasn't yet. Was it that he didn't think to do that before? I find it more likely that he was told by Kira to do it, and that Kira ordered their cooperation to be kept secret."

"If that's the case, then Kira is acting without thinking very much, or he's in a position that isn't allowing him to think things through as well as he has been."

"Yes, that's true, but instead of assuming he made a careless mistake, we should consider that he wanted to let us know that he and the second Kira are working together without alerting the public, since their cooperation is a serious blow to the investigation. However, all this makes it even less likely that Light-kun is Kira."

Eager to hear those words, Soichiro jumped on Ryuzaki, figuratively, of course, with, "What do you mean, Ryuzaki?"

"If Light-kun was Kira, I don't think that this message would be what he'd have the second Kira send. I would say that he would have the second Kira go through with their plan to kill me, having him say that he no longer believed the message to be sent by the real Kira, and realizing that postponing my execution is not Kira's intention."

"Ryuzaki…"

"Hmm?"

"That's not what I would do if I were Kira. If you are L, then I know L's personality fairly well. L wouldn't appear on TV, and he wouldn't allow someone to be killed in his place. You would find some way to avoid it altogether."

"Light." The young man turned to his father. "Even if you're only proving a point, please stop saying things like "If I were Kira"."

"I'm sorry Dad, but I want to be honest with Ryuzaki, and I want to help solve this case and clear my name. Besides, I can only say things like that because I'm not Kira." And everyone believed him, even Ryuzaki.

"Yes, Light-kun isn't Kira," he said as he brought a sugar laden cup of coffee to his mouth. "Or, rather, I don't want Light-kun to be Kira, because Light-kun is my first ever friend."

Light seemed stunned. After far longer than he usually took to respond, he finally choked out, "You're a good friend to me too, Ryuzaki. I've missed seeing you at school. And I'd like to play tennis with you again sometime."

A small, rare smile spread across Ryuzaki's face. "Yes. I would like that too.

"But right now, I'm afraid to show my face to anyone, or even go outside. It might be a good idea to go back into hiding…"

It didn't take long for Light to leave that night, since there wasn't much else to discuss. The others took a little longer than usual to go their separate ways, but within half an hour, Asami got what she wanted.

"You know, Asami-san," Ryuzaki said before she could. "If you wished to speak with me alone, you could have just said so."

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

He stirred his coffee again. "It seems that, unlike Light-kun, you are not a very good liar, Asami-san. It isn't a bad thing," he continued when her face fell. "Although, I wouldn't recommend trying to conceal your intentions from me. You will likely only succeed in embarrassing yourself."

She sighed. "You know, you sound almost arrogant when you say things like that."

"So I've been told. My apologies." He tapped around the dwindling doughnuts in the box. "But I would like to know why you wanted to speak with me."

She hesitated. "You said Light was your first friend. But… is he your only friend?"

"I see. Asami-san is jealous of Light-kun because I said Light-kun was my friend."

"N-no! I never said that!"

"I know you didn't, but that's what you meant by asking if he was my only friend. You wanted to know if you were my friend as well. Am I correct?"

"N-… yes," she said, giving in. "You're too smart for your own good, Ryuzaki."

"So I've been told," he repeated. "No."

"No what?" she asked, confused.

"No, Light-kun is not my only friend. That was the original question, correct?"

"… Yeah, I guess it was. Does that mean that I'm your other friend?"

"Yes. Now, is there something else as well?"

Asami laughed. "You're amazing!"

"So I've been told. However, not amazing enough to guess what that something else might be, so would you mind sharing?"

"Well…" How much should she tell him? How would she explain it? "Were you serious, about going back into hiding?" She smacked herself mentally. Ryuzaki never said anything he didn't mean; of course he was serious.

"Yes, I was. If Kira and the second Kira are now working together as I suspect, this has become a very dangerous situation for me and Watari, not to mention everyone on the task force. As I said, it may be wise to go into hiding to protect everyone working on the case."

"Well, I was wondering… if there was any way that could be avoided," she said, picking her words carefully.

He tilted his head to one side to think before responding. "Yes, there is. Based on both your observation about the second Kira being a woman, and several of my own, I've found a likely suspect, whose apartment in Tokyo is being investigated as we speak. Amane Misa, if you remember correctly from our discussion before Light-kun came. If there is evidence, we will have it by tomorrow, and hopefully I won't die before then."

Her throat tightened. "You seem pretty calm, considering you're talking about dying. _You_ dying. Like no one would miss you." She reached out and took his hand. He jerked in surprise and looked up at her. _Grey, _she realized, looking directly into his eyes for the first time since she'd met him. _They're not black, just very dark grey._

"What are you trying to say, Asami-san?" he asked, trying to pull his hand from hers, but she held on tight.

"I'd miss you," she muttered, running her thumb over the back of his hand. His skin was unusually soft. "Don't talk about it like it doesn't matter."

He pulled again, harder this time, and his fingers slipped through hers. "Very well, Asami-san. Now, if I may make a request in return, I'd like to ask you not to touch me without warning me first, and to avoid doing so in the first place. It makes me uncomfortable."

"I guess I could try… but touching someone is usually pretty spontaneous. _I'm_ not always sure when I'm going to touch someone."

"Yes, I understand you are a very affectionate person," he said, using the words she'd said in her conversation with Matsuda several weeks before, "but I'd like you to try all the same."

"…Okay." She reached out to touch his gravity defying haircut, but stopped herself and pulled her hand back to her body.

"Thank you, Asami-san."

_How did he know?_ she wondered. Then she saw the reflective dark TV screen. _Idiot…_

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Ryuzaki held a small plastic baggie of evidence found in Amane Misa's apartment above him with two fingers and tilted his head. "Hair," he decidedly announced to the task force, putting it back on the table with the others delicately and picking up another one. "Snack crumbs… Hair… Yagami-san."

Surprised by the change of pace, the man in question said nothing. "If I die in the next few days, your son is Kira," Ryuzaki finished. "Hair again."

Obviously bothered by the serious accusation and then the nonchalant return to what he was doing, Soichiro's mouth fell open and he jumped out of his chair. "What did you just say, Ryuzaki?!"

Instantly agreeing, Matsuda chimed in, "Yeah! Where is this coming from all of the sudden?"

He ignored both of them and said, "I'll arrange it so that you can use Watari and all the other resources as you like. It will be up to you after that."

"But you said that you didn't have much suspicion of him anymore! How much do you suspect him?!"

"I'm not entirely sure how I feel myself. Nothing like this has ever happened before. If Kira and the second Kira are now working together, I'm in very big trouble. So, I'm probably not capable of thinking things through calmly right now. I might be saying that because I have no other suspects… But nevertheless, if I am killed now, please assume that your son is Kira."

He stared off into space for a while, which everyone interpreted to mean he was thinking, before he announced he was leaving without specifying where he was going. "A surprise attack", was all he said when asked to elaborate.

"We should… trust his judgment," Soichiro said hesitantly after the door closed behind him. "I'd be willing to say it's better than ours."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Indeed it was.

He walked into the suite two hours later and sat in front of a large television with a mike in front of it that had been set up by Watari when they'd switched hotels two days before. "Watari, has she said anything yet?" he asked, referring to whom everyone assumed was Amane Misa.

"No. She hasn't even complained about being restrained."

"Bring up the visual."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, please."

Everyone gasped when the image flickered across the screen. A young woman three years Asami's junior, although she looked far younger, a teenager at best, was strapped into heavy restraints that would prevent all but the slightest movements. Cuffs around her ankles held her legs in place, her arms folded across her chest under the white cloth and belted down, and a dark blindfold covered her eyes and half of her face.

"Ryuzaki…" Soichiro began, almost speechless. "What the hell is this?"

"She's been apprehended as the second Kira. These precautions are only natural."

"It's true that there was enough evidence in her room to be sure that she sent the tapes…" There was a clear "but…" tone in his voice.

"Yes. There's no mistake. Now we just need a confession. How she killed, if she knows Kira, and who Kira is." He leaned forward and spoke into the mike. "Watari, as long as you're careful, I don't mind if you use slightly dubious methods. We need her to spit it out."

"All right."

"Also, Yagami-san. Be aware that we will likely call in Light-kun for questioning soon."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**There's chapter four.**

**XxXsyderzXxX: Thanks for reviewing! You really can count on family when all else fails! Do it again, but watch episodes 14-15 first!**

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	5. E

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_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Three days. Seventy two hours they had to wait. Draped over chairs, eyelids drooping when they weren't completely asleep, waiting for something, anything, from Watari over the computer. After all that time, even Ryuzaki seemed less aware than usual, although he never let himself slip from the horribly awkward position in his chair, or wherever he happened to be sitting at the time.

Then, finally, "Ryuzaki, Amane is speaking."

The dead room came to life in an instant. Ryuzaki jumped over the side of his chair and said, "Hurry, send the images!" He ran into the next room and dove onto the couch, followed closely by everyone else, who muttered things like, "Finally," and "Three whole days of waiting."

"I can't take it anymore," she said just after the TV came on. "Kill me. Kill me. Hurry up and kill me."

Asami felt tears stinging in her eyes and it took her a minute to understand why. She had no relation to this girl. Why should she care if she was pushed to her limit, as Aizawa said? Her teeth clenched and her shoulders started shaking from repressed sobs, making her grateful that everyone's attention was focused solely on Amane.

"Amane Misa," Ryuzaki said. His voice came out scrambled on the other end. "Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you. Please… hurry up and kill me," she begged.

"Does this mean that you are acknowledging the fact that you are the second Kira and giving up?"

"No. I don't know anything about that. I can't take this anymore… I'd rather die."

Asami shook her head violently at the image of the young woman and stomped out of the room. She curled up in the love seat and let the tears, pent up for a whole year, fall. She didn't hear any of the softer conversation, but she heard the girl yelling, "That's enough! If you won't kill me then…"

"No!" Ryuzaki said in as close to a panic as he'd ever come. "Watari, don't let her bite her tongue!"

A choked sob worked its way out of her throat. Why was she so embarrassed to be crying like this? It was only natural, after all, if a little delayed. Maybe because she was relating Amane begging for death to it in the middle of an investigation… yes, that sounded right.

"Asami-chan, what's wrong?" She hadn't even known they'd come back into the room and the next thing she knew, Matsuda's hands were around her shoulders. "Why are you crying?"

"Wh-what right does she have?" she stammered. "T-to be asking for d-death… wh-when there are people… people who know they're going to d-die soon, and j-just want to live a little longer. T-to see their kids grow up, to st-stay with them a little longer." Before she knew it, she was yelling, sorrow replaced by rage. "After j-just three days she has the nerve to want to die, compared to people who have suffered for months in hopes of getting just a little more time with the people they love, and then been told that they're going to die anyway! Who does she think she is?!"

"Asami-san." She stopped at the sound of Ryuzaki's monotonous voice. "I understand your feelings, but I would like you to keep your thoughts as objective as possible, and to separate the investigation from your personal life."

In an instant, she was on her feet and in the lead detective's face. He leaned away from her, reversing his slouch, startled by her sudden and close proximity. "Aren't they already separate enough?!" she yelled. "After telling me that I can't even have an emergency cell phone on in case my mother _dies_, you're trying to tell me that I can't be upset because that girl _wants_ to die when hardly anything's been done to her! My mom doesn't have a choice!"

"I understand your feelings, Asami-san, but…"

"No! No you don't!" She stomped her foot dangerously close to his bare one. "Last April, my mom was given twenty two months to live with aggressive chemotherapy treatment, and a little over a year without it. So tell me what exactly gives you the right to say that you understand what my family is going through?!"

"My father died of liver failure when I was seven years old." Everyone's mouth fell open and Asami took two steps back. "Of course that isn't important to the case, so I would appreciate it if you would disregard that comment," he said, averting his eyes and scratching the back of his head as though embarrassed for responding.

"Uh… sure," Matsuda said nervously as he mirrored Ryuzaki and backed out of the room.

Relatively unfazed, Ryuzaki walked over to the armchair where he'd been sitting before Amane had opened her mouth and stood in it before crouching. He resumed fiddling with his spoon in the empty cup.

Asami swallowed and asked, "Can I talk to Ryuzaki alone? Just for a minute?"

With short nods and grunts of acknowledgment, the rest of the task force cleared the room. "Very good, Asami-san. It's much more effective to state what you want to get it quickly, than to wait for it to happen coincidentally."

Ignoring him, she said, "Ryuzaki, I'm so sorry. I made a horrible…"

"You are forgiven."

"What?"

"You are forgiven," he repeated patiently.

"Why? How can you forgive me just like that?"

"It will do me no good to harbor a grudge against you, and I have no reason to do so anyway. You are forgiven."

"Well… could you at least let me finish apologizing first?"

"I suppose I could… yes."

"Okay. I made a horrible assumption and…"

"If you will forgive me, Asami-san, I'm afraid that if that is the direction your argument is taking, I cannot let you finish. There is no such thing as a bad assumption."

"Of course there is! What I did when I accused you of not knowing what I'm going through, that was a bad assumption. I shouldn't have done that."

"Your aversions to making assumptions about people where obviously taught by your mother," he commented dryly. "Your father would think otherwise."

"What?"

"Without assumptions, Asami-san, it would be impossible to investigate anything. Yes, evidence is required to finalize the conclusion of a case, but logical assumptions must be made in order to narrow the list of possible suspects, and logical assumptions must be made to find the evidence to convict the suspect."

"What about assumptions that are wrong?"

"Then you apologize and move on. The one that you made about me was very reasonable. You know nothing of my past, and of my heritage you only know that I am English, Japanese and Russian. You could not have had any idea that my father was dead at all, much less from a disease similar to what your mother has. You are not at fault."

"So who is?"

"No one. There does not always need to be someone at fault in an argument."

"Are we arguing?" she asked sadly.

"No. We are not. We are simply disagreeing about the nature of assumptions."

"Good," she muttered. "I don't want to argue with you."

"I would also prefer not to argue if it can be helped."

Unsure of what to do next, Asami knelt next to his chair and put her head on the armrest. "What happened to your father? I mean… ugh!" She smacked her forehead. "I know what happened but…"

"Alcoholic hepatitis," he said. "The only thing he ever taught me was that certain Russian bars are more expensive than others."

"Wow…" she said. "He didn't ever… hit you, did he?"

"No, I believe you misunderstood. He was not a drunk, although quite often he approached the line. He never came home angry, and, to my knowledge, never hit any of us. When he was home, he was an excellent father, although not the brightest."

"So you got your head from your mom?" she teased. She wanted to ruffle his hair, and her hand actually got about half way there before she remembered their "rule".

"Mmm, no, the library. There weren't many books in the house."

"Would you be able to tell me where you lived? Not too specific, obviously, but a general idea?"

He responded with a single word. "Krasnoyarsk."

"Huh?"

"I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it." She detected the slightest bit of amusement in his dull tone. "When asked about Russian cities, most only know Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the two most heavily populated. In a recent study, Krasnoyarsk was… fourteenth or so, I believe. And besides… it isn't easy to remember something you can't pronounce," he finished with a small half smile.

She closed her eyes and smiled with him. Then a thought occurred to her. "Can I hold your hand?"

He looked down at her with wide eyes, full of alarm. "…Why?" She didn't answer, only prying his fingers away from his calf. "Um, Asami-san, our agreement…"

"Hey, I asked first. You never said you had to approve of it."

"Yes. That was very careless of me. However, I did say that you should refrain from it whenever possible." She didn't answer, but kept stroking the back of his hand and his palm as though she was massaging it. "May I ask as to why you are doing that?"

"Your skin's so soft," she murmured absently. "Much softer than his."

"Whose?"

"No one."

"You know better than that, Asami-san. I clearly heard you say, "Much softer than his". Never have I heard someone use the word "his" and not be talking about someone."

"Just… someone I knew," she said unsteadily.

"It goes deeper than that, doesn't it?" he pressed.

"Yes, but you already know much more about my personal life than I'd like you to, so I'm not going to tell you. And besides," she said smugly. "It isn't important to the case."

"I'm well aware of that. _But_ if I recall correctly, it was you who was so eager to establish yourself as my friend, and if I have not been taught incorrectly all these years, friends share things with one another."

"Yes, but _you_ said that Light was your first friend, and that proves that you don't have much social experience. Therefore, you wouldn't know that friends need more than a month to get to know each other before they talk about their pasts extensively." Asami found she was having more fun than she should have, considering she'd been crying and yelling at this man only ten minutes before.

"That is true, but in elementary school, do they not encourage new friendships by having talks about one's self?" He didn't give her time to answer. "Assuming that is true, then because we have not known each other long, all the more reason to discuss personal issues, although obviously not on the extent of normal people, seeing that I am L. And besides, you owe me."

"Owe you?!" She wanted to sound angry, but it was becoming more and more difficult.

"Yes. Besides Watari, you are now the only person alive to have even a vague idea of where I lived from the time I was born until I was ten years old, and I didn't have to tell Watari that."

"Alive? Is it a kind of "if I told you, I'd have to kill you" kind of thing?"

"I am mildly insulted by that, Asami-san."

She giggled and said, "Sorry, Ryuzaki. But anyway, I don't see how _I_ owe _you_. You already know where I grew up, and almost everything else about my professional life, so if anything, _you_ owe _me_."

"That may be true, but none of that is confidential information. If I may be bluntly honest, all of that and more can be found out on the internet if you know where to look, although I have respected your privacy and not looked on social networks or anything of the like to discover any more personal information than was given to me by the Japanese police."

"That was very nice of you, Ryuzaki."

"I had hoped so. But, you still owe me some confidential information of your own. Precisely, who you were talking about before."

She sighed. "Yamada Hitoshi. He was my last boyfriend, two years ago."

"And you don't like talking about him, correct?"

"Yes."

"And why is that?"

"I just don't. Things with him didn't end well, and I don't really like talking about it."

"I've never had any sort of romantic relationship, so I'm afraid I can't understand very well…"

"That's good," she muttered. Her hand curled self consciously around her belly, like every time she thought about Hitoshi and being his girlfriend.

"Well, I'm fairly certain you won't say anything else about that no matter what I do that's within reason, so I'll stop. However, just the fact that you had a boyfriend two years ago and haven't had one since isn't sufficient to balance the information I gave you, I suppose I'll have to find something else."

A giggle escaped from her lips despite the fact that the thoughts swirling in her head were far from funny. "You seem to make everything that's emotionally stressful… better, Ryuzaki."

"Really? I'll have to keep that in mind."

"S-see?" she said, stammering because of her chuckles.

"I never thought myself particularly funny…" he muttered, baffled by her reactions.

"I don't know. Maybe Tarou's been right all these years, and I just have a lousy sense of humor."

"Yes, I see that as a possibility…"

"You jerk!"

He covered his head with his hands as she dropped his hand and stood up, ready to smack him playfully. "I only said it was a possibility, Asami-san!"

She giggled again and ruffled his hair. That was soft too. "Asami-san," he whined.

"You owed _me_ that time."

"For what?"

"For saying that I have a lousy sense of humor."

"Fair enough," he muttered, touching his hands to his hair delicately.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ryuzaki," she said with mock sweetness. "Did I mess with your carefully styled hair-cut?"

"That was uncalled for, Asami-san."

"I don't think so. The most popular topic when you're not around is, "why Ryuzaki dresses and looks the way he does"." It wasn't, of course. The most popular topic was actually "Matsuda's social life", because the young man never failed to bring whatever he was doing that night into the conversation when they were away from headquarters.

"I'm… not sure if I'm going to believe that. Although it does seem plausible, I would think that you would rather talk about yourselves than gossip about me."

"We've got a couple of theories so far," she continued, running with the lie that at this point, wasn't completely untrue anymore. "Matsuda thought that you might just not own anything else, but since you can pay for a suite in a nice hotel for months on end, we've decided that that one's pretty ridiculous."

"Yes, many of his ideas are."

"Aizawa gave a few possibilities, the biggest one being that you weren't actually "L", just a very smart proxy, but…"

"You are right to doubt that one too. If I were to hire a proxy, they would have to be less intelligent than myself, simply because I am slightly egotistical."

"Only slightly, Ryuzaki?"

"Yes. I assure you, I am not an egomaniac."

"That's good to hear."

"Now, did you have any of these theories of your own, Asami-san?"

She hesitated and said, "No."

"Bad liar, Asami-san," he said like a parent scolding a child.

"All right. I did. But it's not polite."

"And why would you think that matters in the slightest?"

"Haven't you ever heard, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all", Ryuzaki?"

"Not since I was five years old, no."

"So not that long ago, I see."

"It depends; if you think that nineteen years is a short period of time, you would be right, but to most people, that would be quite a long time, and therefore make that saying irrelevant."

"You know, I take back what I said about you helping in stressful situations. You just create them."

"I don't believe that is entirely fair. I have helped you deal with two things in the past fifteen minutes alone by being inadvertently amusing, and the fact that I also annoy you is completely irrelevant. Now, please share with me your theory."

He was too good. "Fine," she muttered. "Mine was that you were autistic."

Although the words came out in a jumbled mess, sounding more like a babble of insanity than a coherent sentence, he understood. "And what would lead you to that conclusion, Asami-san?" he asked, more distant than he'd been only seconds ago.

She sighed. She'd _told_ him it was impolite. "You remind me of a little autistic boy I used to babysit… your weird way of sitting, the way you bite your thumb, how you won't eat anything besides sweets, how you wear the same thing every day, and that look you always have on your face. You're so much like him, that, a few weeks ago, I started thinking that maybe…"

"And this boy had High Functioning Autism, correct?"

"Aspergers Syndrome, actually. By autistic, I just meant he was officially on the spectrum. You're… you're not offended, are you?"

"Not in the least." Asami did a double take. "Although it isn't an official diagnosis, I have determined that I am probably on the autistic spectrum somewhere, so I can see quite clearly why you would relate my behavior to Asperger Syndrome."

"Oh… okay. Hey, where are you going?" she asked when he started getting out of the chair.

"To see if Amane has regained consciousness yet. I would like to be there when she wakes up."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Stalker-san? Stalker-san, where are you? Let's stop this game."

The chocolate in Ryuzaki's fingertips stopped halfway to his mouth. "Stalker? What is she talking about?"

"Stalker-san, this is illegal, so stop this, okay? Stalker-san?"

"Does she think she'll be able to get out of this by playing dumb?" Matsuda asked.

"I know! You could at least take off the blinder, right? I would like to see Stalker-san's face."

Ryuzaki pressed his thumb against his lip, then held out his hand. "Matsuda-san, please call Mogi-san."

"Huh? Um, sure…" he said unsteadily. "Here."

"Mogi-san, when you apprehended Amane Misa, you made sure to tell her that she was being convicted as the second Kira, correct?"

Asami didn't hear the reply, so she just listened to what Misa said next. "I'll give you my autograph and shake your hand. Oh! And I'll give you a kiss on the cheek! Come on! I won't run away!"

Ryuzaki pressed the button with two fingers and said, "Amane Misa."

"What is it, Stalker-san? Are you going to let me go?"

"Before you lost consciousness, you were almost silent before asking me to kill you. Why play dumb now?"

"Huh? What are you talking about? Stalker-san was the one who knocked me out and brought me here. Something like, "we'll investigate Amane Misa". Do you want to do something like that?"

"Why are you tied up there right now?"

"Why? Well, because Misa is a star, right? But, you're the first stalker to have gone this far."

Matsuda looked fed up. He came forward to the microphone and grabbed it. "Hey, Amane, quit messing around!" he shouted.

She made an "eek" sound and said, "I'm scared… I don't like this! Let me go! Let me go!" Matsuda backed away. "…Oh. Bathroom. I need to go to the bathroom again!"

Ryuzaki sighed visibly, but not audibly as he said, "It's only been four minutes since you last went to the bathroom. Please hold it in."

"But that's the only time you untie me! And you'd get to see me pee again. Isn't that what you want, you pervert!"

"I'm… a pervert?" Ryuzaki wondered aloud. Then he broke off and said to her, "Amane, let's seriously discuss what happened before you passed out. Do you know Yagami Light? Why did you approach him?"

"What? You think I don't know my own boyfriend?"

"What is going on?" Matsuda asked for all of them.

Before anyone could offer up an idea of any sort, a cell phone rang. Ryuzaki pulled out the third one that Asami had seen him using and held it above his head. "It's from Light-kun," he said. "Turn it off please," he told Watari.

"Yes."

"Yes… yes… I understand. We're in room 28015."

"My son is coming?"

"Yes."

Light came in behind Matsuda twenty minutes later, looking like a small child getting ready to apologize for something. "Ryuzaki," he said. "Like I said on the phone… I think I might be Kira." He avoided everyone's eyes and Ryuzaki's crouching figure.

"No! That's impossible!" Soichiro said, rushing forward and grabbing his son's shoulders. "What are you saying?! What's going on?! Light!" he yelled when the young man didn't respond to him shaking his shoulders.

"Dad, if Ryuzaki is L, then he's unquestionably the best detective in the world. If L says that I'm Kira, then I must be Kira."

"What are you talking about?!"

"The suspects FBI agent Raye Penbar was investigating just before he died, the people who went to Aoyama on the twenty second, and second Kira suspect Amane Misa's love interest… everything points to me. If I was in L's position, I'd deduce that I'm Kira. So even though I have no awareness of it, I might be Kira."

"Light…"

"I don't even know who I am anymore. I might have some other personality that comes out at night and does the killings…"

"That isn't the case," Ryuzaki cut in.

"What do you mean, Ryuzaki?"

"There was a period of about five days when we installed cameras in your house."

"Cameras…?"

"Yes. You were sleeping normally at night, and the killings still continued. Because of that, we didn't conclude that "Yagami Light is not Kira", but that "Yagami Light is not revealing to us that he is Kira"."

"I see… "Not revealing myself as Kira"… That might be true." He held his hand to his forehead like he had a headache. "Honestly, I think sometimes that major criminals would be better off dead… and anyone who thinks that way could be Kira."

"Light-kun!" Matsuda said suddenly. "I think that some criminals should be dead too, but that doesn't mean that I'd actually go and kill them, right? And criminals that you had no way of knowing about died when the cameras were in place. That proves it!"

"No, it doesn't," Aizawa said. "We were short-staffed then, and we could only watch him in the house. He was at school for most of the day, and he could leave whenever he wanted. If he found out he was being watched, he could have found a way to do the killings when he was outside."

Desperate to find someone who could think logically to defend his son, (in other words, not Matsuda) Soichiro said, "Asami! You've known Light for years! Tell him how ridiculous he's being, that he can't be Kira!"

"I'm sorry, Yagami-san, but there's no way I can do that." She looked away, unable to stand the betrayed look on his face. "Light can be… overenthusiastic, to say the least, about his ideals. If he gained the power to kill people with just a name and face, I definitely think that it might occur to him to use it to kill criminals. Please don't be upset, Yagami-san. I want more than anything to say that Light isn't Kira, but with all the evidence and his personality, I… I can't do it."

Ryuzaki sighed. "I really don't like where this is going, but… fine. Yagami Light will be place in confinement similar to Amane's for an undetermined amount of time."

"What?!"

"Confining Light-kun…?"

"But if we're going to do it, we're going to do it right now. He will not be allowed to leave my sight until he is taken to the cell."

"But there's no way he's Kira! My son would never-"

"It's okay dad."

"Light!" he said in a "you're-not-helping" tone.

"I can't chase Kira while thinking that I might be him. But, Ryuzaki… until you know whether or not I'm Kira, you can't let me out no matter what I might say."

"… I understand. Yagami-san, could you please come up with a reason why Light-kun will be out of contact with your family for a while?"

"I-I can't do something like that so suddenly! And why should he have to be confined in a-"

"Give it up, dad. I want to do this for myself, to prove that I'm not Kira. I can only overcome my fear if I take away my own freedom like this."

And that was that.

He changed out of his school clothes and into plain dark pants and a long sleeved shirt. A blinder, a pair of earmuffs that would block out all sound, and a set of handcuffs were set out to be put on him. Before they were, and he was simply standing behind Ryuzaki's chair, Asami took his hand, gave it a little squeeze, offered a smile, and teased half-heartedly, "Don't go crazy in jail."

He smiled back a little more enthusiastically, though not much more, and said, "I'll try not to."

She was choking up again. In a single smooth movement she hugged him close to her. He wrapped his arms around her, and she whispered, "I love you, okay?"

She felt his chest rumble underneath her ear with a little chuckle. "I've been hearing that a lot recently. I don't think Misa will be too happy about you saying it too."

"Do you really think I care what she thinks, baby brother?"

Another chuckle and, "No, I don't think so."

"Good."

He smiled at her while the handcuffs were slapped on, along with the blindfold and earmuffs. Then he was lead down the hallway.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Review response time!**

**Orohippus: Thanks so much. I'm glad that you a) reviewed and put this story on alerts, and b) mentioned something specific that you liked about last chapter. If I can't get constructive criticism, I'll go for specified compliments. Thanks again!**

**Please review!**


	6. F

Wow. With such a positive response to last chapter, you would have thought I'd have updated by now. However, my teachers have recently decided to bombard me with work, and I worked forever to try to make this chapter more exciting and longer, but failed. Hopefully, the next one will make up for what this one lacks in both departments.

I'd like to thank all of those who have put this on either their favorites or alerts, and those who have reviewed.

Alerts: CAWM, Happycookbook, Iridessa, Kerezteny, Orohippus, XxXsyderzXxX, YourRedRightAnkle, crystal teardrops, dreamerxofxroses, and xXRedemption's AngelXx.

Favorites: Devil2Kyuubi, Kerezteny, Kira-and-Taru, and fmafangirl1415.

Thank you to those who reviewed last chapter, Happycookbook, YourRedRightAnkle, Kerezteny, and crystal teardrops, and Orohippus and XxXsyderzXxX for reviewing previously. As usual, responses will be at the end of the chapter.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- Confinement Day 1**

It took two and a half hours for Light to arrive in the single cell in a building only half an hour away, where there was already a camera for surveillance set up. Aizawa led him in and removed the blinder and ear-muffs. Light blinked in the sudden brightness of the cell and shook his head to clear it after being cut off from the world for almost three hours. It was almost painful for Asami to watch him taking a seat on the cot, sitting there glowering at the floor like a hardened criminal. Her breath caught in her throat for the third time that day. _I'm getting way too emotional,_ she thought with a subconscious laugh.

"Ryuzaki, I'd like you to take me off the task force." Completely ignoring Aizawa and Matsuda's protesting, Mr Yagami continued, "My son is being confined as a prime Kira suspect. I shouldn't be here. When we were discussing his confinement, I allowed my feelings to get in the way."

"Yes," Ryuzaki said absently. "Personal feelings shouldn't be involved."

"If it's determined that my son is Kira, I don't know what I might do…" he finished.

"Yes. Depending on the circumstances, I could imagine you killing your son and then yourself. I agree that it may be wise to remove you from the case. But, no matter what happens, please don't resign from the police."

"Ryuzaki, my son is a serious Kira suspect. I should resign because of that alone. That's how the police are."

He hesitated, like he normally did before he said, "I understand. But the only people who know your son is a suspect are those here, in the task force. So if you are going to resign, please wait until we have determined that he is Kira and have announced it to the rest of the police."

"You're right. If I quit now, it would be running away. If he is Kira, I want to confirm it myself. But at this rate…" His composed demeanor slipped away for an instant and he said, faster than usual, "Ryuzaki, would you confine me too? I'm relatively calm now, but I don't know when my feelings will get out of control."

"I figured you might say that, so I've had Watari prepare a cell for you as well. However, even though it's confinement, you may have your cell phone on occasionally to keep in contact with your family, and we will constantly update you in regards to the investigation. We will not tell Light-kun about this, and if he asks about you, we will make it seem as though you are here with us." He popped a cube of cantaloupe in his mouth and asked, "Is that all right?"

He didn't answer directly, but said, "Thank you, Ryuzaki."

"Asami-san?"

"Yes?"

"You are also very close to Light-kun. Will you be able to keep control over your emotions for however long the confinements may go on?"

"… Yes."

"Good. Just in case, I told Watari to prepare two, even though I didn't find it particularly likely that you would do anything as extreme as Yagami-san might. I'll tell him immediately that it won't be necessary."

A soft smile pulled across her lips. "You think of everything, don't you?"

"I'd like to think so. Again, there was only a tiny chance that you would want to be removed from the investigation, but I really don't like being unprepared." He swallowed the last bit of the fruit and licked his fingers childishly. "I must admit, I am glad it isn't necessary."

She thought for a moment that he might be joking. "Why's that?"

"I've become rather fond of your company. It is an interesting change of pace, much like Light-kun's company."

Her face flushed a very obvious shade of pink, and she turned away from him with a mumbled, "thank you". The biggest compliment he'd ever given anyone, and he'd given it to her, of all people!

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- Confinement Day 3**

Asami tried her best to sneak from her bedroom to the kitchen without being noticed and called into the living room to give her opinion on the recent turn of events, particularly the halt of Kira related killings in just the three days since Light had been confined. However, the one sided conversation between the second Kira and Ryuzaki the "stalker" caught her interest, and they noticed her staring at the screen before she could shirk away.

"Stalker-san, I want to take a bath. And you know where I live, right? Bring me a change of clothes," Misa whined.

"This is getting really weird," Matsuda muttered.

"Ryuzaki," Light said. "What's going on out there? Have any new criminals been announced that would be targeted by Kira? Have any of them been killed?"

_Light, you idiot,_ Asami thought.

Ryuzaki pressed the talk button on the center mic, and said in earnest, "A number of them have been shown on the news, but none of them have been killed since you were put in confinement."

"None of them? Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I see," he muttered, barely audible, as he stared at the floor. "So I really am Kira…"

"Not necessarily, Light-kun. It may only be a coincidence." He pressed his thumb to his lips and stared at the screen, obviously deep in thought. Then he hit the off button and asked, "What do you think, Asami-san?"

She sighed. "I wish you would stop asking."

"My apologies. I did not mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset; I'm just trying not to think about this whole ordeal right now."

"I see. And that is why you've been avoiding this room, correct?"

"Yes."

"… I understand," he said with the usual pause that indicated he didn't.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- Confinement Day 7**

"Light-kun, it's been a week so far. Are you all right?" Ryuzaki asked.

He had reason to be concerned. Light looked dead on his feet, with bags around his eyes that rivaled Ryuzaki's from sitting on the floor when he should have been under the thin covers on the cot. His normally neat hair was disheveled, the bangs hanging over his eyes and further darkening them.

"Yeah…" he said finally, raising his head a little. "I know I must look pretty bad in here, but useless pride like this, I'll have to get rid of it." He put his chin back onto his knees and glowered at the floor.

Then, suddenly and all at once, his head lifted again, his narrowed eyes widened, and he glanced around the cell like he was seeing it for the first time. He lifted his head and addressed the camera. "Ryuzaki! I know I suggested the confinement myself, but I've realized that it's pointless, because I'm not Kira! Let me out of here!"

_What are you doing, Light? This isn't going to help you, not now…_

"I can't do that. I promised you that I wouldn't let you out until I was one hundred percent sure that you were not Kira."

"I know I said that, but something was wrong with me then. Do you think Kira could kill so many people without being aware of it? He definitely knows what he's doing by using whatever power he has to kill criminals. I don't have any awareness of committing those murders, so I can't be Kira!"

Ryuzaki said hesitantly, "I also find it highly unlikely that Kira was not conscious of his actions, but if you are Kira, all the current events fit into place if it is assumed that you simply can't accept the fact that you are Kira. All Kira related killings stopped immediately after you were confined. I firmly believe that you are only hiding the fact that you are Kira."

"Ryuzaki, just listen to me! I swear I'm not lying. I'm not Kira! I must have been framed, that's the only explanation for this!"

"Framed? That's impossible, Light-kun. The only people who know of your confinement are the ones in this room, but the killings immediately stopped when you were confined…"

"Then someone there is Kira!" he said, cutting him off. "Come on! I'll help you investigate! Let me out!"

"No, I cannot let you go."

Light hung his head and swore at Ryuzaki's blunt answer. "Why is this happening?" he asked himself.

Asami shook her head. "Light wouldn't do this… what's going on? He's completely taking back what he said before. That's not like him at all." Her voice started to rise in pitch and volume alike. "Ryuzaki, what if he's going crazy? You said yourself that the week of confinement was getting to him; what if he hurts himself?"

"Please calm down, Asami-san. I find it highly unlikely that there is anything wrong with Light-kun, except for maybe an unexplained change in his personality. However, even if that were the case, I would still not be able to release him until I had reached my conclusion."

"Yeah," Matsuda said. "Since the killings stopped, there's no way we can let him go. Even I know that."

"So shouldn't this mean that Yagami Light is Kira, regardless of what anyone says?"

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- Confinement Day 9**

For the first time in almost four weeks, Asami spent the night in the apartment she was still helping her brother pay to rent. The soft blue blanket and quilt were so much simpler than the large bed spreads in every hotel they'd been in so far, but also warmer than the scratchy sheets in between, no matter how many layers of puffy comforters were piled on top. Her narrow bed was more comfortable and cozy, settled close to the wall so she could touch the cool paint with her foot or thigh when the air conditioner turned off for those brief, fifteen minute periods. It helped that it was not so wide and empty that she felt another person should be sleeping next to her, reminding her of all the nights she'd gone to bed beside Hitoshi.

She'd asked Ryuzaki for a break that day, after an almost nonstop verbal battle between Light and L over Light's release/conviction. Her "little brother" was defending his innocence with an extreme ferocity that he normally used to prove his points in a hard argument, but Ryuzaki refused to budge. Every "I'm not Kira!" was countered by a simple, "Yes, you are", and occasionally evidence against him was laid out, _again_. It was a grueling process that was already starting to grind on her sensitive nerves.

A key turned in the lock of the door down the stairs and hall. "Finally decided to spend more than an hour at home, baby sister?"

Asami curled her knees close to her chest and pretended to be asleep as the stairs creaked with his weight. He opened the door slowly and poked his head inside. "Are you awake?" he asked softly and more gentle than his question before.

"I am now," she muttered, trying to fake grogginess. It didn't work.

"You were just waiting for me to come home." Asami wasn't ready to argue with her brother now, at midnight, and she thought he might believe she actually had just woken up if she stayed silent.

There was a long silence between them, Akira trying to think of something to say and Asami wishing he would just go to bed.

"I missed you," he said in the same hushed tone. "I'm not on a busy case right now, so I've got tons of free time, and this place is pretty big when it's empty."

"What about Emiko? Didn't she ever come over when I wasn't here?"

"No," he said as though it pained him.

"Did something happen?"

"Yeah… it wasn't working out, so we… We went our separate ways."

"But you really liked her!"

"I know."

She rolled over to face him, resting her head on her arm. He moved a little closer to sit in the chair at her desk. "Aren't you ever going to get married, Kira-chan?"

"You say that like I'm really old," he said with a laugh. "I'm only thirty."

"Only thirty," she scoffed. "I'll be married and have a toddler by the time I'm thirty."

"So I was right."

"Huh?"

"That's why you haven't been coming home. You've found someone else." Before she could protest, he continued, "I honestly didn't think you'd be ready to move on yet, but…" he shrugged. "Congrats."

"For once, you're wrong, Kira-chan. Do you really think I'd fall for someone on the task force? They're all married or way too old, except for one, and he's an idiot."

Akira laughed. "So Matsuda did stay! And let's see… I know the Chief's there, and… Ukita died, but I'm pretty sure Aizawa would have stayed there with him, and Sato, Ide, and Mogi were still there when I left… I see what you mean. But…" he paused thoughtfully. "What about L?"

"Wh-what about him?"

"I know you can't tell me what he looks like, but about how old is he?"

"I… I don't know."

"Liar," he said. She could make out a wide grin in the dim light. "Only Matsuda would be able to say that and get away with it."

"You're so mean, Kira-chan."

"So it's the truth. And by the way, your hesitation makes it so obvious."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Like hell you don't. You studied four years to be an investigator just like me. L's around your age, and you have a crush on him," he said with a laugh.

"Go to bed, Kira-chan."

"Yes, mom."

"Is this how you act at work?"

"No," he said, rolling his eyes a little, but with the same grin on his face. "When I'm at work, I work, and when we're both home, I tease you."

"I'd definitely rather be your friend than your sister."

"Nothing would change."

Asami sighed and turned over. "Good night, Kira-chan."

Her chair squeaked as he got up. "Night."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- Confinement Day 15**

"What the hell is going on?!" Matsuda asked even though he, and everyone else already knew. The only stories on the news the night before had been reports of criminals being killed, coming in every hour on the hour, up to twenty at a time. By the time Kira stopped at three a.m., over 100 criminals that had been on the news or in the paper over the two weeks had been pronounced dead.

Aizawa was sitting in an armchair with the morning newspaper in his hands. Everything on the front page and a good number of the articles inside were Kira related. "Yeah. "Kira Resurected", they're saying."

"Have you told the Chief yet?" he asked, far too excited that people had been killed if it provided proof that Light might not be Kira.

"No, not yet."

Matsuda stepped forward and grabbed the line to Soichiro's cell. "Chief! Kira's started killing again!"

"What?"

"Kira was just resting! He's started judging criminals again!"

"He has?! That means, my son… I know I shouldn't be happy about people being killed, but my son…" He paused and looked away from the camera in dismay. "No, this is Ryuzaki, he won't clear him…"

Matsuda and Aizawa gave him expectant looks, and Asami had to stop herself from doing the same. Ryuzaki hesitated, then said, "How about gray, then?"

"Did you hear that, Chief?"

"Yes. He was almost guilty just yesterday; this is good."

"He's probably almost cleared now!" He put the mic down and reached for the other one. "Now we have to tell Light-kun…"

"Matsuda!" Ryuzaki said suddenly, knocking his hand away before he could hit the button. Then he calmed down and corrected himself. "No, Matsuda-san, please don't tell Light-kun."

"Why?"

Ryuzaki didn't answer, but pressed the button to Light's cell himself. "Light-kun."

"What is it, Ryuzaki?"

"It's been more than two weeks now and no new criminals have been killed. Can't you just admit that you are Kira?"

"Don't be stupid, Ryuzaki. You're wrong. I know that following the deductions that have been made so far, I can understand why I'm under suspicion, but you're wrong. I'm not Kira! Zoom in or something and look at my eyes! Can't you tell I'm not lying?!"

Ryuzaki didn't answer, but switched his attention to Misa. "Amane, you really don't know who Kira is, do you?"

"That again?" she sighed. "I wish I knew. Kira's a hero. He killed the burgler who killed my parents."

_I don't know what's what!_

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

And now the responses!

Happycookbook: I'm glad you came back into the Death Note section too! Thank you so much, and I hope you like this one, even if it's not very exciting.

YourRedRightAnkle, 2: Thank you for reviewing and leaving such positive feedback, and even giving some other comments. I know what you mean about rushing the romance; I've seen it a lot too. But you don't have to worry about it here I hope. Everything up until now and for a little while longer is just one-sided affection, and real romance won't come in until the end. Thanks for telling me about the annonymous review thing: I didn't even know it was an option to turn it off, and I'm not sure how to turn it back on... Thanks again!

YourRedRightAnkle, 5: I'm glad you think so. I've been so insanely worried about him talking to her, and even though my beta says it's fine, I need more than one opinion before I believe it. Thanks for your review!

Kerezteny: Wow... that's the best thing anyone's ever said about something I've written. I'm really flattered. Thank you so much. I'll do my best.

crystal teardrops: Thanks! I'm glad you do!

And that's everything. I've never had to underline and un-underline so many people's usernames; it's so great! Thank you everyone who reviewed and the like, and everyone else who's reading this. Read and review!

LK


	7. G

Hello everyone. This was a rather quick update because I was insanely excited about writing this chapter, probably because I am a slightly sick human being. ANYWAY...

Thank you everyone who's put this on their alerts and favorites, and those who have reviewed. Responses are at the end of the chapter as always.

Alerts: Hm... it's very tiresome to write all the names out ever time, so I'm going to welcome Volital and bloodoftheangels to the list, and thank everyone else in a general statement. Thank you again, everyone!

Favorites: Same as above, thank you everyone who has this story on their favorites list, and welcoming Volital to this list as well.

Thanks to my beta, rukia23, for helping me and confirming that I haven't screwed up L's character yet, even in this situation. However, until I hear it from someone else, I probably won't be satisfied.

Disclaimer: I keep forgetting to do this... anyway, I still don't own Death Note, and just in case I forget again, as I am wont to do, I probably won't own it for the duration of this story. I'll let you know if anything changes, and this will become a "claimer" instead of a "disclaimer".

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- Confinement Day 30**

**11:47 pm**

Nothing of consequence had happened for two weeks. Light and Misa sat in confinement with Kira killing just as rigorously as before they had been taken into custody. Headquarters shifted every six days or so now, since everyone was spending much more time staring at the television screen and less time at home, even though all that ever happened was a daily argument between Light and Ryuzaki about Kira's identity. After two weeks, everyone but Ryuzaki was firmly convinced that Light could not be Kira, but the detective refused to budge.

Presently, Ryuzaki hit the button to formally end his tiring conversation with Light without saying anything but "No, you _are_ Kira."

Light swore. At this point, Asami couldn't tell if Ryuzaki just wasn't talking to him or actually ignoring Light's angry pleas. "Ryuzaki! Are you even listening to me anymore?" he asked.

Ryuzaki tipped his head to one side and hit the talk button. "No," he said shortly, and pressed the other one. Asami giggled, although she didn't really want to.

"That's not funny, Ryuzaki! Pay attention!"

"No." Light didn't hear that one: he'd forgotten to turn on the mic.

Ryuzaki forgetting anything that didn't have to do with interacting with people was a reason for concern. Asami made her way over to the loveseat in front of the television and squeezed in between him and the arm rest, since he'd crouched in the very center. She became increasingly worried when he didn't move when her body brushed against his for lack of space.

"Hey," she said quietly. "What's going on? Are you in a bad mood or something?"

"A bit," he mumbled. "I'm afraid I haven't been feeling very well." He paused, and then said, as though remembering what had just happened, "That was rather obnoxious, wasn't it? I'll have to apologize later."

Since he didn't seem to mind her touching him for the time being, Asami put her hand on his shoulder. "Are you sick?"

"I'm not sure, but it seems likely."

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong, or should I guess?" she teased.

"I am nauseous and irritable, and not as calm or in control of my actions as I usually am, so I would not recommend provoking me like that, Asami-san." He took his arms off his knees and wrapped them around his middle for emphasis.

"Does your stomach hurt too?"

"Mm, yes, but I think discomfort would be a better word for it."

She started rubbing his back in gentle circles in between his shoulder blades, where most people had a sweet spot. He inhaled sharply, then relaxed and even seemed to be enjoying it. A thought occurred to her, and she asked, "Do you think you might throw up?" He didn't answer right away, so she asked again.

"I don't know," he finally said. "I haven't been sick for almost eight years: I can't remember very well what it feels like."

"You're lucky," she said. "I get sick all the time. I think you're rubbing off on me though. I haven't even gotten a cold since April."

"You realize that is quite impossible, don't you, Asami-san?"

"Of course. It was a joke."

"I see." He closed his eyes and let his mouth hang open slightly. It was funny seeing his eyes closed again, since she hadn't caught him sleeping since the second Kira incident. In a way, it was absolutely adorable.

"I… think you may be right, Asami-san," he said quietly a minute later.

"About what?"

"V-vomiting," he stammered.

It took a few seconds for her brain to register what he'd said, but when she realized it her heart began to pound in her chest and her "babysitter instincts" started to take over. "O-okay. Can you get to the bathroom?"

"I don't think so." In only seconds he'd become covered in a cold sweat and started trembling.

"Okay," she breathed. She stood and grabbed the small plastic waste basket near the table that served as an entertainment center. "Put your legs down and sit normally, all right?" He nodded and did so, leaning over so his head was directly above where she put the trash can. She sat in front of him and put one hand on his knee. A little strand of saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth, and she quickly wiped it away with a tissue.

"Hey! What's going on?" Matsuda asked. Both he and Aizawa had been at the two laptop computers, checking the Kira killings from the day before. There had been no significant movement over by the monitor for several hours, and the sudden scramble had gotten both of their attentions.

"Ryuzaki's-" Asami began, but didn't need to finish. Half way through her two word sentence, L heaved into the trash can.

He coughed and took in a shuddering breath before he vomited again. "He's sick," she repeated, her voice slightly distorted from pinching her nose to block out the sickening smell wafting from the container.

For the next five minutes, she focused on his unruly hair to avoid looking at what was coming out of his mouth or what was already sitting in the trash can. He dry heaved twice, and then was still but for the violent tremors still wracking his body.

Asami took a deep breath through her mouth and wiped the residue away from his chin. Then she whispered, "Shh, shh," and stroked his hair. Her other hand found his and gave it a little squeeze. If he didn't like it, he didn't let her know.

"Thank you, Asami-san. That was most unexpected," he said shakily.

"S-so… what happened, exactly?" Aizawa asked, just as shocked as Ryuzaki.

"I don't know. He just… got sick," she said. Her hand moved to his cheek, no longer entirely ghostly pale, holding a slight pink flush. "I think you have a fever."

He nodded slowly. "I've been very cold."

"Okay. Let me clean up and take your temperature and then I'll get you a blanket. Do you want to lie down?"

He nodded again and said, "Yes please." He tipped himself over so he was on his side and pulled his legs up to his chest. She petted his hair one more time and got up. He watched her walk away with the trash can and suddenly felt less comfortable. He was relieved when she returned with a thermometer and a damp wash cloth a few minutes later. She lifted his head and wiped his face to clean it of sweat, and did the same around his neck.

"Ah," she said, opening her mouth in a gesture to get him to do the same. She slipped the thermometer under his tongue and held it there until it made a small beeping noise thirty seconds later. "Oh, jeez," she muttered at the instrument. "Matsuda, do you have a calculator?"

"Uh, no… why?"

"It's in Fahrenheit, not Celsius."

"What does it say?" Aizawa asked, fingers over the number pad on the keyboard of his computer and calculator application pulled up.

"100.7. I think that's high in Fahrenheit, but I'm not sure."

"Yeah, it's above 38." He looked over at Ryuzaki with a strange look on his face somewhere between sympathetic and shocked. "Not too high, but he's definitely got a fever."

"Thank you," she said softly, and got up again to retrieve an extra blanket from her room. "There you go." She smiled at him and rubbed his back through the thick cloth she'd draped over his shoulders. "Feel better."

"I'll try."

"Okay." Hardly knowing what she was doing, she leaned down and quickly kissed his forehead.

His eyes, half closed, shot open and stared at her as he always did, but with an element of shock and surprise in the deep gray irises. "May I ask… why you did that, Asami-san…?"

"It's late, and you're sick. You should get some rest," she instructed, dodging the question.

It wasn't often Ryuzaki let someone get away with dancing around his interrogations. But then again, it wasn't often he suddenly vomited and developed a fever in the middle of an investigation, so he let it go. "If Light-kun begins speaking to me again, please don't tell him what happened. Act like everything is fine."

She sighed. "I don't like doing that, but… okay."

"Thank you, Asami-san."

"Goodnight."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- Confinement Day 31**

**7:14 am**

The next morning, there were no traces of the improbable events of the night before. Ryuzaki sat at the TV with a cup of sugary coffee and a piece of cake, poking at each with a spoon and fork respectively. The only thing odd about it was that he hadn't touched them otherwise.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, taking the position next to him with her hand on his back that had become familiar in a matter of minutes the night before.

He turned in his crouch and delicately lifted her arm away from his back by the sleeve of her shirt. "Although last night was an extenuating circumstance that called for our rule being broken, I would like you to begin asking permission again today."

"I guess you're better, huh?" she said as her face fell and felt overwhelmingly grateful that Matsuda and Aizawa either hadn't woken up, or were still in their rooms.

"I suppose. I am not vomiting, although there is nothing in my stomach, but I am very tired, and if I am not mistaken, my temperature is still above 37 degrees Celsius."

"Well, let's check." She reached for the thermometer on the table, but he beat her to it, and stuck in his mouth. Determined to win, Asami snatched it out from in between his teeth the moment it beeped. He brought his hand to his mouth and mumbled something before he peered over at the tiny digital screen.

She frowned, and her hand came up to his forehead. "Rule, Asami-san," he said while frantically trying to back away from her. His shoulders hit the couch and he tilted his neck back so he could see behind the couch, albeit upside down, but her hand made contact with his face anyway.

"It's higher than it was before…" she muttered. It had been 100.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and now the thermometer measured 101.4. Trying to think of every mild illness she'd researched to be prepared as a babysitter in junior high, she came to one in particular. "I think you might be dehydrated. You started sweating, and threw up… and you're not sweating anymore, even though your temperature's higher. You should drink something," she finished, talking to him again rather than herself.

"Yes… you're probably right." He tilted his head to one side and looked frustrated with himself. "I should have realized that by now. Lethargy makes it very difficult to think…"

She giggled and resisted the very strong urge to put her hand on his back again. Instead, she got up, filled a glass with water, and brought it back into the living room.

Ryuzaki inspected the glass in his fingertips for thirty seconds before he lifted it to his lips and took a sip. A look of disgust flashed across his face. "What's wrong?" Asami asked. He responded by reaching for the bowl filled with sugar cubes. She laughed. "You're kidding, right?"

"Far from it, Asami-san." He pulled out three cubes and dropped them into the glass one by one and watched them dissolve before he took another sip. "Much better," he said, and drained the glass in a matter of seconds.

Licking his dry lips, he commented, "You were correct about dehydration, Asami-san. I believe in a few minutes I will realize how long 18 hours is to go without eating anything." He took his fork off the plate in front of him and broke off a piece of the cheesecake that had been sitting there for a number of hours, and stuck it in his mouth.

"Hey, slow down," she scolded as he lifted a second forkful before he'd finished chewing the first. "If you eat something rich like that too fast, it'll upset your stomach again and you'll be miserable."

As if just realizing it himself, Ryuzaki halted the fork and looked it over before setting it down. "Yes, thank you, Asami-san. I'm afraid you will have to make sure I don't act on impulse and do something foolish, as I am quite certain it will happen again and I will not be able to effectively reason with myself before I do something stupid." He pulled at his lip and pouted. "I am not used to being so completely unable to think logically. I am sorry for the inconvenience."

"No problem," she said, and, on an impulse herself, put her hand on the top of his head and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

He kept his eyes focused straight ahead and blinked several times. "I'll have to repeat the question I am fairly certain I asked last night, although I could be wrong. May I ask why you just did that, Asami-san?"

"Because you're sick."

"I'm afraid that will no longer do, Asami-san. Although I am not nearly as aware as I normally am, I am still somewhat coherent, and I will not allow you to avoid my questions like that."

"But I'm not avoiding it," she protested. "That really is why."

"Very well then… would you elaborate, please? I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Well… it's hard to explain. Didn't your mother ever kiss you when you were sick?"

"Yes, I suppose she did, but you are not my mother."

"But I'm your friend, right?"

"Yes." He turned to look at her, tipping his head in that quirky way of his on those rare occasions when he was confused about something. "Is that something friends do? I had thought behavior like that was reserved for couples."

"Sometimes… but… what I'm trying to say is… friends take care of each other when they're sick, when parents aren't around to do it… friends look out for each other…" She groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I don't know what I'm trying to say anymore! I care about you, and I don't want anything to happen to you, and somehow, because of that, I want to kiss your forehead and touch your hair." She took a deep breath. "But if it makes you uncomfortable, I won't do it anymore."

She watched him staring at his feet. "The loss for the correct words seems to be contagious, Asami-san. However, I will do my best. For some reason, your affections do not bother me as much as I had assumed they would." Her heart skipped a beat. "At this point, I am only afraid I will develop some affection of my own for you."

The translation she made, hoping it was correct: I'm afraid I'll fall in love with you.

"You can do that?" she teased to cover her racing heart and give a reason for the grin pulling at her cheeks.

"Of course. I am just as human as you or Light-kun, and I am already quite fond of you, and this recent incident has only made that fondness stronger."

She giggled and kissed him again, this time on his temple. "I'd say I'm pretty fond of you, too."

"I can tell." He reached for the fork again, and this time the cake made it all the way to his mouth. He swallowed, waited for several minutes, and then lifted another bite, and repeated the process until the sliver vanished.

"Good morning, Asami-chan!" Matsuda called from the doorway of the living room, adjusting his belt a little. Then, as an after-thought, "And Ryuzaki, too."

Said detective was lifting the small tea-cup containing his coffee by the tips of his fingers, and took a sip before saying softly, "Yes, Matsuda-san…"

Suddenly, he shuddered and very nearly dropped the cup. A little of the sugary liquid sloshed over the side, and Asami gently took it out of his hand and laid it on the table. "Ryuzaki, what's wrong? Ryuzaki?" she said, shaking his shoulders a little.

"I think I am going to be sick again."

"Okay. Shh… easy," she muttered. Everything was set up as it had been the night before, and he threw up everything he'd eaten since then within a matter of minutes.

"D-déjà vu," Matsuda stammered.

"Tell me about it," Aizawa agreed.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- Confinement Day 32**

**11:32 pm**

"Asami, there's something wrong."

"Really?" she said sarcastically. "I couldn't have guessed from the fact that he's not keeping anything in his stomach." Ryuzaki heaved again, and her attitude transformed in an instant. She rubbed his back and kissed the top of his head as he emptied his stomach for the fifth time since he'd first gotten sick, hushing him and murmuring the pet names she'd unconsciously begun to use. As though he wasn't even there, she continued to Aizawa, "He's not keeping anything down, his temperature is over 40 degrees (1), he's dehydrated, and he's so tired and miserable he's acting like a child… I know something's wrong." Her voice broke. "But I don't know what. Do you have any ideas, Aizawa?" she snapped.

"I… I think he needs to be taken to a hospital."

She laughed darkly. "Ha! And do you think you could maintain the lie that you know anything about him, or at least who he's supposed to be? Can you go into the emergency room and make them believe that you actually know anything about "Ryuga Hideki"?"

"No, but… I'm sure Watari will. I'm sure he has all the medical records under his fake name, and he could pretend to be his father." When she didn't respond, he moved closer to continue angrily, "He needs medical attention, Asami! If this goes on like this, he'll die!"

She whimpered and shrank back at his words, the tears that had been threatening to spill over finally did, and she uttered a choked sob. Ryuzaki stopped vomiting, and she pulled him up to her chest and hugged him tightly. He was too weak to do anything but let her cry onto him.

"You think I don't know that?" she said finally. "You think I don't know how serious this is and that I can't do anything but try to make him more comfortable? I thought I was doing the right thing by waiting, to see if he'd get better, but he didn't!" Aizawa backed away, stunned by which nerve he'd struck. "I'm scared," she whispered. "I'm so scared he's going to die, and I'm not going to be able to do anything. I'm so scared." Her next sentence was barely distinguishable as "I don't want him to die!"

Matsuda inhaled and gathered his courage, and walked over to the couch. "That's why we have to call Watari, Asami-chan. Watari can take him to the hospital, and they'll take care of him, and everything will be fine." He put both of his hands on her shoulders.

She nodded quickly, and said, "I want to go, too."

While Matsuda hit the button in the center of his belt twice and waited for Watari to call his cell phone, since no one knew the man's number, Asami whispered to Ryuzaki, although how much he could understand at this point was uncertain. "We're going to the hospital soon, okay? They're going to give you an IV, and get you hydrated, and find out what's wrong. Then they'll fix it, and you'll get better, and then everything will be back to normal," she said, babbling as though to a child. She took a deep breath to try to stop her soft crying, and buried her face in his hair.

"Sounds good," he mumbled, and that set her off again. She squeezed him tighter, to the point where he moaned softly and said, "That hurts."

Her arms loosened, and she kissed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. Shh… shh… I'm sorry. I won't do it again… I promise. Here, lay down, sweetie." She pushed him over gently so he was on his side on the couch. Then she knelt by his head and continued smoothing his hair.

His face was tight with pain, and his arms were folded tightly over his middle. She didn't think much of it, since he'd been uncomfortable for most of the two days he'd been sick, until he said, "It hurts."

"Huh? What hurts, sweetie?" She stopped petting his hair and reached over to his crossed arms. "What's wrong?"

She slipped her hand underneath his forearm and pressed it firmly against his belly. Instantly, he cringed. "Stop it, stop it!" he moaned. She yanked her hand back. "It hurts!"

"Okay, okay, calm down sweetheart. Shh… easy now, I'm sorry." She took the wet wash cloth off the table and dampened his face. "I'm sorry."

His breathing quickened until he was practically gasping and murmured, "Gonna be sick," moments before he gagged into a tissue she held in front of him.

"Shh… it's okay," she muttered, wiping away the dark residue from his lips. "Everything's going to be… oh my God," she whispered. Her shoulders began to shake and her voice rose in terror.

"What? What happened?" Aizawa asked.

"Oh my God, it's blood, he's vomiting blood! He's bleeding internally, he's going to die!" she screamed.

"Asami-chan!" Matsuda came forward and took her into his arms, willing her to calm down. "Asami-chan, Watari's going to be here in ten minutes. It's going to be all right."

"He's going to die, he's going to die!" she sobbed over and over.

"No, he's not; he's going to be okay! Calm down, Asami-chan… please?"

"He's going to die, he's going to…"

"Asami-san."

It was barely audible, but Ryuzaki hoarsely whispering her name was the magic word. Cheeks still stained with tears and fresh ones blurring her vision, she unwound herself from Matsuda's arms and scooted over to the couch. "What is it, sweetie? What's wrong?"

"Stay please?" he asked.

She wiped her eyes on the back of her wrist and whispered, "Of course, baby." Then, "I'm coming to the hospital with you, too."

"Good," he said, and closed his eyes.

She kissed his forehead and held is hand in hers. He held onto it tightly, to alleviate the pain, she assumed. "It's cold," he mumbled.

"I know. Just wait until Watari gets here…"

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

When he did, the first thing out of his mouth was, "Goodness," followed shortly by his explanation. "I had assumed Matsuda was exaggerating when he told me how serious it was. I'm rather surprised."

"Hey!"

"I told him what to say, Watari," Asami said.

"I see."

"We really need to go now," she continued a little frantically, somewhat annoyed by the old man's calm demeanor. "He threw up a few minutes ago and there was blood in it. He really needs to get to the hospital soon."

"Really? That's quite serious." He chuckled at her face, becoming more and more panicked and anxious by the minute. "All right, my dear. We can leave now." He bent down without curving his spine and asked, "Can you walk, Ryuzaki?"

"Maybe," he said distantly.

"Okay," Asami cut in before Watari could respond. She helped him up and slung his arm over her shoulder. "Lean on me, okay sweetheart?" Watari, observing her with interest, noted the pet name she'd given him and how she kissed his cheek before leading him out of the suite and to the elevator.

"Need to sit down," he said when the doors closed. "Dizzy. And tired." His breathing was labored, as though he'd just run a marathon walking down the hallway.

"Okay." She helped him slide down the elevator wall into a sitting position. "Better?" she asked. He nodded, gasping. Her breath caught behind the emotional lump in her throat, and tears started gathering in her eyes again. She held his hand, drawing little circles on it with her thumb, and buried her nose in his hair.

They arrived at the ground floor several minutes later, lucky that no one else was coming in at that hour on a Wednesday night. "Time to stand up, sweetie," Asami whispered, shaking his hand a little.

"Not yet," he muttered. "Too tired."

"Come on, baby. You have to get up. We have to go to the hospital," she said gently.

"Can't. Can't walk… no more walking. No more. Please. It hurts." He spoke in short, detached sentences in between gasps.

"I can't carry you sweetie. You're too heavy."

Wordlessly, Watari handed Asami the keys to his car and bent over and lifted the young man off the cool elevator floor. "Please go ahead and unlock the doors," he said, already straining from the effort of carrying Ryuzaki. She did so, and took Ryuzaki into her arms once Watari set him down.

"Thank you," he mumbled, head resting in Asami's lap.

She smiled and said, "At least he hasn't forgotten his manners."

As the car roared to life, Watari instructed her on what her role would be when they reached the hospital. "Would you pretend to be his girlfriend for the time being?" he asked, smiling to himself. "I had thought about sister, but you are clearly Japanese and he is clearly not. To say that you are siblings would arouse suspicion, especially since I will be introducing myself as his father. And in this case, you can use your own name."

She wasn't paying attention, and he knew it, but he smiled when she said, "Yeah, sure," and went on gently comforting him, still on the verge of breaking down again. "We're going to be there soon. They'll take care of you. Make you better."

He shook his head and shoulders a little to indicate "yes". Then he mumbled, "It still hurts."

"I know sweetheart. Just hang in there, okay?"

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

35 year old Suzuki Kaede considered herself to be a fairly experienced ER doctor, after five years of clinical experience. Still, when a young man named Ryuga Hideki came in, dehydrated, lethargic, and bleeding internally, from the tearful account of the past two days given by his girlfriend, Nakamura Asami, she was caught off guard. She administered an IV to get him hydrated right away, and then began talking to him while a nurse shouted information about him to an assistant taking notes: his heart and respiratory rate (extremely high), blood pressure (very low), symptoms and speculated percentages of water loss.

"Hey Hideki," she said loudly to make sure he could hear her above the commotion. He mumbled something in response. "I can't hear you sweetheart." When he tried again, she could make out, "hello".

"Hi to you too. Listen, can you tell me what year it is?"

"Four," he muttered.

"2004?" He nodded. "Do you know what day it is?" He shook his head. "Do you know where you are?"

"Hospital."

"And why are you here?"

"Really sick."

"Okay, good." She looked across the bed at Asami, who was holding his hand. "Do you know if he's allergic to any medication?" Her eyes flickered to the young man's father, standing a little behind Asami.

"None to speak of," he answered calmly.

"Okay. Hideki?" she asked, and rubbed his shoulder a little. "Stay awake for me, sweetheart." The young man was clearly fighting with fatigue. "Your girlfriend told me your belly's a little tender, so we're going to take an ultrasound to see if there's any fluid in there, and while we're waiting I'm going to press down on your belly a little and you have to tell me where it hurts. Can you do that for me, sweetheart?" He nodded.

She pulled back the plain white cotton shirt up to his ribs. The first thing she noticed was that it was a little bloated, the first sign of fluid or bleeding in between the internal organs and wall of his abdomen. She made the mental note and rested her hand in between his hips and navel, pressing down a little. He seemed not to notice, so she moved upward, near the intestines and stomach.

With the pressure, he recoiled and moaned. His hand clamped down on Asami's very quickly, and he pulled one of his legs up to better tense his body against the pain. "Is that the tender spot?"

"Yes!" Asami snapped for him. "Now stop it, can't you see you're hurting him?" Then she proceeded to rub his shoulder and bring his hand to her mouth and kiss it softly.

Kaede could tell right away, this woman was going to be a typical headache: wanting what was best for the patient, but unable to see it from a practical standpoint. A PITA, several of her American colleagues had called them while she'd been in the US. A pain in the ass.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Asami knelt beside the hospital bed, brushing her fingers against Ryuzaki's cheek while he rested, waiting for the EGD (an abbreviation for an insanely long word that meant investigating the esophagus, stomach and intestines with a camera on a tube) the doctor had ordered as soon as he'd been nil per os (2) for six hours. He squirmed a little in his fitful sleep, compelling her to kiss his forehead for the umpteenth time in three days. Her fingers ran down his neck, lightly touching the central IV they'd placed there when they determined he wasn't getting hydrated fast enough from the one in his arm and that he would have gone into hypovolӕmic shock . A biluminal (3) tube was giving him both liquids and a unit of blood to make up for what he'd lost from his vomiting episode in the hospital half an hour before, just after the ultrasound that would have brought him to tears had he been hydrated enough to cry for the conclusion that there wasn't any fluid hanging around his stomach.

"Poor baby…" she whispered. She could feel Watari's presence behind her; he must have gotten back from the talk with some hospital official or other. "Did you ask if I could be there with him?"

"Yes," he answered quietly so as not to wake his "son". "They understand, and that would be quite fine."

"That's good."

"Oh?" he asked with a good deal of amusement and a barely concealed smile.

"Yeah… I've been with him this whole time… it seems a little silly not to be there during the procedure. To finally find out what's wrong." She wiped her eyes quickly and went on lightly touching his skin and hair.

When they started getting ready to move him, the various mechanisms on the bed clanking loudly as they unlocked, he blinked his eyes open. He was greeted by Asami's gentle smile off to his right, the only way he could look for the time being. It was shifting around, confusing him, but showed that both of them were moving. "Look who's awake," she said.

"Good morning," he said in as loud a voice he could muster.

She gave his hand a squeeze and asked, "Feeling better?"

"A little."

"Not so tired and groggy anymore?"

"Mm-hm."

"Good," she said. She would have kissed him, but since they were moving, that wasn't an option, so she waited until they were in the room to do it. "Love you, baby," she whispered so only he could hear, and she really hoped even he couldn't.

"Okay," the specialist said, clapping her hands and motioning to her colleagues to begin preparing the equipment. She bent over him next to Asami and asked, "Do you know what we'll be doing to you today?"

His first few words were lost, but Asami caught, "Camera down my throat."

"Yup," she said cheerfully. "I'm going to warn you right now, it's going to be a little uncomfortable when we start. We have a spray for your throat to numb it up, but it's still going to feel weird, so you're going to have to just bear with us until it gets into your esophagus. After that, you can hardly feel it." She took a tiny bottle from the cart and sprayed it twice into his open mouth. "There you go! We'll be ready to start in just a few minutes, and the anesthesia needs a minute to settle anyway."

With a little adjusting of the catheter, he was rolled onto his side. Asami sat by his head, out of the way, and stroked his hair to comfort him as the fiber optic tube was fed through the guard and down his throat. He whimpered a little as it went down, and Asami watched the display screen with a sort of morbid fascination.

"Everything looks good so far," the specialist informed Asami and Watari, along with her colleagues. She was suddenly serious. "No tears in the esophagus… that's pretty good considering how many times he threw up. And now down into the stomach and… wow."

"What is it?" Asami asked nervously. She could see the reddish inside of his stomach, but couldn't find anything wrong with it yet.

"That's one of the worst cases of gastritis I've ever seen, and I've been doing this for ten years. See how red it is? It's normally a light pinkish-tan. The red indicates an infection, and this one's pretty serious."

"Wh-what does that mean?"

"Don't worry too much. He needs to get on some serious antibiotic treatment as soon as we're done here, but first we need to find and stop the bleeding. Turn it around a little," she instructed the operator. "I can see a little blood coming from that direction. There we go."

From a small inconsistency in the smooth lining, more of a gap in the swelling than a cut, oozed bright red blood that gathered in a corner of the organ. Asami clapped her free hand over her mouth and whispered, "Oh God!"

"All right… this isn't as serious as I thought it might be. Try to calm down, please." She gave the operator a series of instructions regarding electrocautery, placed something like a weight on Ryuzaki's thigh (4) and told him, "There's going to be a little jolt inside your stomach, but it's not going to hurt you." The edge of the camera came closer to the cut until a small piece of metal could be seen touching the cut. "Ready… go!"

A button was pressed, a tiny light could be seen on the monitor, Ryuzaki trembled slightly and all the sudden there was a clot where the leaking blood had been. "Is that it?" Asami asked a minute later as the fiber optic tube started retreating up Ryuzaki's esophagus.

"That's it." Her cheerful attitude had suddenly returned. "We'll get him on some medication for the infection and he'll be drinking himself by tomorrow."

"When can he go home?"

"Mm, I'm not in charge of that. They'll want to make sure that he can keep down solid food, so, my guess would be…" she bobbed her head back and forth, counting days and adding in factors. "Four days at best, but they'll probably want to keep him five for observation."

Asami looked away, counting herself. Five days was a long time to be away from the investigation. Matsuda and Aizawa could probably handle keeping track of Misa and Light on their own, and Mogi could take care of everyone in confinement for the time being, but…

As they started walking back to the room beside the cot, she glanced up at Watari. "I'll stay with him."

"All five days, or however long it may be?"

"Yeah. You have to work," she said vaguely, as she had to because of the ever present nurses carting Ryuzaki back to his room. "I can get a few days off, and if I can't… it doesn't really matter anyway."

"I am quite certain your employer will understand," he said, although the implications were quite clear. _If I had a regular job, Ryuzaki would be more important than me keeping it._

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Six days after he'd been admitted, Ryuga Hideki was discharged from the hospital. "Thank you very much," he'd said, sitting in a wheelchair near the discharge desk while his father had filled out the paper work regarding billing and follow-up and his girlfriend, who'd hardly left his side the entire week, stood behind him, ready to push him out of the building.

"Just doing our job," said the nurse who'd taken care of him. Ito Nanami was her name.

Asami shifted impatiently while she waited for Watari to be ready to leave. She'd been doing nothing for six days, after the initial rush of Ryuzaki being life threateningly sick had worn off, she realized that the hospital really was an overly dull place. Both she and the detective had gotten sick of the slimy (but never greasy) meals that were brought/bought from the cafeteria by the third day, and the blaringly white walls and constantly beeping equipment.

"He's taking too long," Ryuzaki mumbled. "I know about the paper work that needs to be completed, however, this is taking far too long for my liking."

That gave her the excuse she was looking for to bend down and kiss the top of his head. "I know. I want to get out of here too."

Nanami used her hand to conceal a huge grin. "You act like his mother more than his girlfriend," she said with a little giggle. It wasn't the first time she'd noticed it, Asami was sure, since she was several years older than her and extremely intelligent.

"I know. Guilty as charged," she joked. "But I was a babysitter all through school, and old habits die hard."

"Thank you," Watari said to the man at the desk. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," Ryuzaki said eagerly.

Nanami giggled again. "Take care, Hideki-kun. I'd like so say, "I'll see you soon", but for your sake I don't think I want to."

He nodded without the smile that would be present if it was anyone else, but she didn't seem to mind, already somewhat used to his odd mannerisms. "Thank you very much, Nanami-san."

The first thing he did when he got into the car was pull himself up into his crouching position. He winced a little as muscles were stretched in ways they hadn't been in over a week, and the cauterized wound in his stomach reminded him of it's presence. "You okay, sweetie?" Asami asked.

"Yes, fine. It is unnerving to think that I have grown unaccustomed to my sitting habits in such a short period of time."

She smiled, kissed his forehead and ruffled his hair. He responded by looking at her solemnly. "I'm afraid you will have to refrain from displaying such affections once we are back at headquarters, Asami-san."

She sighed and her smile fell before it returned, half hearted and sad. "I'm so used to it now."

"Yes, but I will ask you to do so just the same."

She leaned in to kiss him again, and whispered against his temple, "Okay."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

(1) For those of us who live in the US and don't have a calculator handy, 40 degrees Celsius even is about 104.0 degrees Fahrenheit, and is marked as the beginning of a high grade fever.

(2) Nil per os- A medical term meaning "Nothing by mouth" (Latin)

(3) Biluminal is a term to describe a central venous catheter with two separate tubes for different liquids, i.e. medications and blood.

(4) The procedure used in monopolar electrocautery, where the current is passed from the probe to a grounding pad placed on the patient's thigh to carry the current back to the machine and avoid extensive burns.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

And now for the review responses!

Kerezteny: I'm sorry for worrying you! I can assure you that although it may take me a while, I won't abandon this. I'm glad you think so highly of my character, since it's my goal with OCs to make them fit into the story as well as I can. I hope you still think so after this chapter... Also, you're partially right about the alphabet thing, although I'm afraid this won't be 26 chapters long. I planned it out so that things start to line up later in the story, which is why this one is so long, to keep everything lined up. Thanks for reviewing!

Volital: Glad you like it so much! I looked at the fanfic you mentioned, by the way, and I'm already hooked. Thank you for reviewing, and adding this to every list you could.

YourRedRightAnkle: Thanks for your wonderful review, and I'm glad you're enjoying my story and consider it one of the few and far between good LxOC's. I'm happy you found it too, and hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Read and review, please!

LK


	8. H

Hello again everyone! Some announcements to make.

First of all, I have enabled the anonymous review thingy, so anyone too lazy to log in, or without an account, or whatever your predicament may be, you can now review!

Two, this story now has twice as many reviews as it does chapters. LK likes this, and would like it to continue. Please?

Finally, there's a slight bit of language in this chapter that hasn't been present before, so heads up to anyone under the age of thirteen, or anyone otherwise a little sensitive to harsher language. The rating is T for a reason.

As always, new alerts and favorites go up here, and review responses go at the end of the chapter.

Favorites: Only one new person to add to this list, Rixiroo. Welcome! Hope you're enjoying the story.

Disclaimer: No part of Death Note belongs to me. Hitoshi, Asami, and her family do. That's it.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**Yagami Light- First Day of Freedom**

Asami hugged her "baby brother" the moment he walked into the hotel room, forcing him back into the hallway. "I missed you too," Light said with a laugh. Meanwhile, Misa looked on with an expression of offense at their closeness.

She rocked him back and forth a little in her embrace and said, "It was so horrible seeing you in… jail." It was hard to say the word, the same way it had been hard to watch him panic as he thought he was about to die the night before. "And Ryuzaki said he should be the only one talking to you."

Speaking of Ryuzaki, he came up and tapped her on the shoulder. His pocket was making a faint jingling noise. "Asami-san, if you will allow me to do something…"

"Huh? What is it?"

He didn't answer, but pulled Light inside the room and closed the door. He then proceeded to lock a hand cuff from a pair of them with a meter long chain around his right wrist. Then the opposite one was locked around Light's left wrist. _Oh jeez…_ she thought.

Light stared at the cuff, jingling a little as he held it up to his face for examination. "Is this really necessary, Ryuzaki?" he asked.

"I'm not doing this because I want to," he said firmly.

Misa lifted her hand to her face in surprise. "Is this what you meant by being together 24 hours a day?" Surprise was quickly replaced by disgust. "Two boys chained together… that's gross! Does Ryuzaki-san swing that way…?" she asked, making a motion to one side with her hands.

"I am _not_ doing this because I want to," he said a little more forcefully.

"But Light is Misa's Light, and if you're together 24/7, when does Misa get to go on a date with Light?"

"The dates will obviously have to be the three of us."

"What?! You're telling me we have to kiss in front of you?!"

"I'm not telling you to do it, but I will be there."

"What?! You're a pervert!"

Ryuzaki moaned. "Light-kun, please make Misa-san be quiet."

"Misa, don't be difficult. You should be grateful you've been released, since you definitely sent those videos to Sakura TV."

"Not you too, Light!" she exclaimed. "I'm your girlfriend, right? Don't you trust your lover?"

Light backed away as she leaned closer. He looked a little scared by her self given titles. Girlfriend, lover, this was all news to him. "You're the one who said it was love at first sight… and you've been pressing ever since…"

"So you've been taking advantage of my feelings and kissed me because I said I liked you?!" She started wailing something that sounded like "Idiot!" and pounded on his chest.

Asami was about to stop her from seriously hurting him, but Ryuzaki got there first. "About this love at first sight… it was at Aoyama, on the 22nd of May this year, correct?"

"Yeah," she said nonchalantly, Light's beating suddenly forgotten.

He thought for a moment and then asked, much like when he was interrogating her, "Why did you go to Aoyama that day? What were you wearing?"

She leaned in closer, frustrated. "How many times do I have to tell you? I only went there because I felt like it, and I don't remember exactly what I was wearing. I'm not allowed to bum around Aoyama without a reason?"

"So when you got home, you knew Light-kun's name."

"Yes." She took another step closer and put her hands on her hips.

"But you don't know how you found out his name?"

"Yes, that's right." By now she was uncomfortably close to him, but he was in his interrogation mode, so he hardly noticed.

"Then how would you feel if Light-kun were Kira?"

"If Light was Kira?"

"Yes."

She stared at him blankly before the realization of what he'd asked set in. However, her reaction to it was anything but expected.

"Awesome," she said, wrapping her arms around one of Light's. She started nuzzling his shoulder and continued. "I've always been thankful to Kira for killing the criminal who killed my parents. If Light was Kira, I'd like him even more, although it would be hard to love him any more than I do now!" she said with a cutesie smile.

"This is Kira," he reminded her. "You wouldn't be afraid?"

"If Light was Kira, right? Not scary at all! Misa is pro-Kira. I'd try to find a way to help him!"

"Hmm… you'd probably only get in his way… But there's no doubt that you're the second Kira. It's actually so certain that I'm beginning to wonder…" he poked his lip and moved a little closer, making her move away now that she had Light to cling to.

"Good, because Misa isn't Kira!"

"Anyway, you will be placed under surveillance. On outings and jobs, Matsuda-san will accompany you as your manager." Matsuda stood up and waved at her, mouthing, "Hi, Misa-Misa!" We've paid your modeling company to agree to this, but they don't know that he is a police officer, so don't tell them yourself."

Misa glanced over at Matsuda with a look of disapproval, and hugged Light's arm tighter. "I don't want that guy as my manager."

"What? What's wrong with me, Misa-Misa?" he protested.

Aizawa, who'd been looking frustrated throughout the entire conversation, finally snapped. He stood and brought his hands down on the table, which looked like it might break under the force it obviously wasn't built to take. "Give all the kissing and dating and Misa-Misa talk a rest! This is the damn Kira case, take it seriously!"

"S-sorry," Matsuda stammered.

Suddenly embarrassed by his outburst, Aizawa said, "Yeah… I know you were taking it seriously, but… Anyway," he said, walking forward, "go to your room, Amane."

"What?" He led her to the door and attempted to push her inside, but she poked her head out and said, "Light, let's go on a date, even if it is the three of us! And Asami-chan can come too and we can double!" The door closed in her face and a gasp could be heard behind it. "Oh no! I didn't mean to pair you with Ryuzaki, Asami-chan! I'm so sorry!" she called.

Light laughed as Asami blushed several shades of pink and Ryuzaki asked, "Should I be offended by that, Asami-san?"

She laughed a little herself and said, "I don't think so. I wouldn't mind going on a date with you at all."

Ryuzaki sighed. Ever since he'd gotten out of the hospital and forbidden her from showing any affection in front of the task force, she'd managed to catch him alone to hug, kiss or comfort him, along with dropping not so subtle hints left and right.

As always, he responded by abruptly steering away from the subject. "Light-kun."

"Yes?"

"Are you serious about Amane?"

He gave a nervous chuckle and said, "No, like I said, it's all one sided."

"Then can you pretend to be serious about her too? We know that she is at least involved with the second Kira from the video evidence, and that she loves you."

"You want me to get close to her and make her reveal things about the second Kira. Is that what you're saying?"

"Yes. I think you are capable of doing it, Light-kun. That is also one of the reasons I released the two of you."

_Ryuzaki, Light's the son of a police officer and you have his background information,_ Asami thought. _You should know he doesn't approve of using people like that._

As expected, Light looked him squarely in the eye and said, "Ryuzaki, even if it's to solve the Kira case, I could never play with a woman's emotions like that. I'm sorry, but understand that, to me, toying with someone's feelings is the most horrible thing a person can do." Ryuzaki gave him his analysis look for thirty seconds. "What's wrong, Ryuzaki?" Light finally asked.

"Nothing. You're right, Light-kun. However, I'd like you to at least make sure that she doesn't reveal anything about the investigation."

"Sure, but, Ryuzaki… is there anything we can do about the constant need to change hotels? It would be better if we can stay in one location."

"Yes, I've also been thinking about it, and so," he yanked Light over to his laptop by the chain, "the building began when I showed myself to Yagami-san and the rest of the task force my face. It will be finished within a few days. Here it is," he finished, hitting "Enter" to open the image.

A tall, sleek skyscraper came up on the screen. "There are twenty three floors, plus two in the basement, and even though it can't be seen from the outside, there is room for two helicopters on the roof. All the security is state of the art, and there are various checkpoints. Floors 5 through 20 hold 60 private suites, meaning we could hold about that number if we increased our force. I'd like all of you to live there as much as possible from now on, and Misa-san shouldn't complain if she gets an entire floor to herself."

"Yeah," Light muttered. "But to go this far for the case…"

"And where are you getting the money for this, Ryuzaki?" Matsuda asked in awe.

Avoiding the question completely, he said, "This means I want to solve this case, no matter what."

"That's not a valid answer…" Aizawa said.

"Yeah, that's right," Light said, looking determined. "Kira's a mass murderer, and he's put me and my dad through all this trouble… I'm with you. I want to stop him no matter what."

"If you say, "no matter what", couldn't you get close to Misa-san and…"

Light cut him off. "I can't do that, Ryuzaki. It goes against my morals."

"I see…" he pretended to pout and made Asami giggle. "That's a shame."

Aizawa made an odd noise, earning glances from everyone. "Sorry," he said. "I'm getting really motivated now. Chief, Ryuzaki, Asami, Light-kun, let's catch Kira no matter what!"

"Uh, my name wasn't included…" Matsuda said awkwardly.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Asami-chan, I know I paired you with Ryuzaki the other day, but will you come on the date with Misa and Light and… Ryuzaki." Misa said the detective's name with disgust. "It's better with four people instead of three. We can pretend it's a double date, even though it's you and Ryuzaki… eh! I don't know how to say that without it sounding like the two of you are dating!"

"Of course," she said happily. "I don't mind being "paired" with him at all."

Her eyes widened with realization. "Does that mean you like him? Oh my gosh, does he like you too? Are you dating? Have you kissed yet?"

"Woah, woah, calm down!" she said to the girl who was practically on top of her in her excitement at the newfound gossip. "I like him a little bit, and knowing him he's already figured it out."

"Oh, yeah! Because he's really smart like Light, but not as smart as him, obviously!"

"Sure," she said. This girl was seriously grinding on her nerves, and she'd only been out of confinement for a week. "But no, we're not dating, and no, we haven't kissed." _Unless I count while he was sick, but those weren't real kisses,_ she thought sadly. "But I don't think anyone else has noticed, so you _can't tell them_."

A wide grin spread across her face. "So it's like a secret crush!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down. "That's so cute! Even if it is that pervert…" She clapped her hands over her mouth. "I'm so sorry, Asami-chan, I can't help it!"

"Don't worry. If he actually cared, I might, but, I don't mind it that much," she said, even though it was a complete lie.

There was a knock on the door. "Asami-san, Misa-san," Ryuzaki called, sounding very bored.

"Come in, Light!" she called, and then said, unenthusiastically, "and Ryuzaki."

The four of them sat on two couches, on either side of a glass coffee table. In front of each person was a cup of coffee on a saucer, a spoon, a fork, and a slice of cake. Ryuzaki crouched and took to his cake immediately, pushing the strawberry on top off to eat later. Besides his chewing and everyone else's uncomfortable shifting, the room was silent until Misa said, "This doesn't feel like a date at all."

"Pay no attention to me," Ryuzaki said blandly, shoving the strawberry into his mouth whole. "By the way, will you be eating that cake?"

"No. Sweets make you fat."

"But if you use your head, you can eat sweets without gaining weight…"

"Hey! You're making fun of me again!" She leaned forward and said, "If I give you my cake, can I be alone with Light? Even if this is a double date, it's too awkward. You can be alone with Asami-chan."

"Even if you are alone I will be watching on the monitors, so it won't make any difference."

"You pervert! Stop these sick hobbies of yours!"

"You may call me whatever you like, but I'm taking your cake."

"Fine, we can turn of the lights and close the curtains," she said with a grin.

"There are infrared cameras too."

"Then we can get under the covers, right Light?" she said with a glance that was attempting to be seductive.

"Whatever," Light said dismissively. "Meanie!" she pouted as Light continued. "Ryuzaki, we have this great new headquarters, but you don't seem motivated at all."

"Mm, no, you're right. I'm actually depressed."

_Oh no…_

"Depressed?"

"Yes…" He shoved a bite of cake in his mouth. "Almost since we began this case, I thought you were Kira. I'm shocked that my deductions were wrong." He paused and jingled the handcuffs to amend his statement, and said, "Well, I obviously still suspect you, because of the handcuffs. But Kira could control people's actions, meaning that Kira controlled you to make me think you were Kira. Light-kun and Misa-san were both controlled by Kira. Everything makes sense if I assume that to be true, but I don't understand why he didn't kill both of you. But now we have to start over from scratch. It's very frustrating."

"With that thinking," Light said, "it means that Misa and I were Kiras while we were being controlled."

"Yes, that's definite. You were both Kiras. In my deductions, the Light in confinement before the killings resumed was Kira, because the killings had stopped. But when the killings resumed two weeks later, I came to the conclusion that Kira's power passes from person to person."

Light stared off into the distance, much like Ryuzaki was doing, but he was looking above Asami's head, although he'd tipped his head from side to side at varying intervals throughout his speech. "Interesting theory," he said finally. "But if that's true, that would make catching Kira difficult."

"Yes, that's why I'm depressed. If Kira makes someone kill criminals until they are caught, and then transfer the power and make the person lose all their memories of the method of killing and the murders. That would make capture impossible."

"But we can't know that yet. There are too many things we don't know about Kira yet to be certain. Show a little energy." He put his hand on Ryuzaki's shoulder.

"Energy? I don't know… why even bother?" he asked. Light and Asami looked at him in shock. "Going after him only puts us in danger. I've thought I was going to die so many times already."

Asami wanted to do something for him. Going over to the opposite couch and hugging him came to mind.

Instead, Light stood up and said, "Ryuzaki…" The older man looked over in slight confusion when…

Light decked him and sent him flying/stumbling across the room with the force. Misa shrieked as Light was dragged after Ryuzaki, knocking the table over toward them. Asami jumped over the back of the couch to avoid it crushing her legs, and then looked over to where Ryuzaki had landed, near the potted plant, which he'd tipped over.

"Ouch," he said. "That really hurt."

Light ignored him and said, "Don't even joke about it! Just because I'm not the real Kira, because your deductions were off, you want to give up?! You're going to sulk like a baby?"

He wiped his lip and said, "My wording may have been bad, but being on the offensive won't get us anywhere, so to avoid dangerous situations, we should stop."

"There's no way we can catch him without going on the offensive! What about all the innocent people that have been victimized? The police, the FBI agents," he ran forward and grabbed Ryuzaki by the collar of his shirt. "You were the one that confined Misa and I!"

"I understand that, but for whatever reason…" He ducked, pulling himself away from Light. His left leg lifted and he slammed it into Light's chin and said, "Once is once."

Light flew backwards with a grunt and hit the couch, and when Ryuzaki stumbled forward, pulled by the chain, it fell over.

Ryuzaki straightened up first. "It isn't just that my deductions were wrong, but the fact that this case can't be solved with "Yagami Light is Kira and Amane Misa is the second Kira". I am a little disappointed. Am I not allowed to be a human being?"

"No, you're not! The way you say it, you won't be satisfied unless_ I'm_ Kira!"

"Not satisfied unless you're Kira? I think you may be right. I just realized that… I wanted you to be Kira."

Light growled like an animal as they both stood, and pulled back his fist to punch Ryuzaki near the bridge of his nose. Instead of flying again, however, Ryuzaki pushed against the force behind it, struggling to stay upright. "Once… is once…" he grunted, "and I'm… pretty strong." He spun and kicked Light again, but instead of flying backward, Light righted himself and pulled Ryuzaki by the chain to nail him again. Ryuzaki took the hit and grabbed Light's shirt, prompting him to do the same. Each pulled back their fists and…

The phone rang.

Asami sighed with relief as Ryuzaki walked over and picked up the phone like he hadn't just been fighting with Light. "Yes?" he said, and listened for a few moments before dropping the receiver back into its cradle.

"What was that?" Light asked breathlessly.

"Nothing, just Matsuda-san being an idiot again."

"Well, Matsuda is a little slow."

They turned at the thump of the couch being set back in place. Asami heaved another sigh and said, "You two made such a mess."

Light avoided looking at her as she went into the bathroom to get things to clean them up and Ryuzaki pressed his thumb to his lip in embarrassment. Then he pulled it away with a tiny yelp. "What's wrong, Ryuzaki?" Light asked. With a single glance he backed away and called, "Asami, Ryuzaki's bleeding!"

"What?! Okay, give me one minute."

"Please hurry, Asami-san," Ryuzaki said, his voice slightly muffled. His hands were held out under his chin to catch the flowing blood. "It's dripping."

"Okay." She went to him and lifted his chin, wiping it with a wet washcloth and tapping the tear in his lip. Then she went about cleaning his hands, and she noticed the blood oddly placed on his thumb. "You did this to yourself!" she said.

"It hurt," he said lamely.

"So you did this?" she asked in a voice as angry as she could muster, and smashed her thumb to her mouth in example.

"It seemed natural…"

She rolled her eyes at him just before she kissed his forehead. "I swear, you're so stupid sometimes, Ryuzaki."

Light looked at them in amazement, while Misa seemed happy beyond belief. "Light! Did you see that? Asami-chan kissed Ryuzaki! Asami-chan loves Ryuzaki!"

Ryuzaki brought his eyes to hers and said softly, "I thought we had an agreement, Asami-san."

She ignored him. "Hold that in between your lips. I'll get some bacitracin in a second, but in the meantime, Light, it's your turn."

"For what?"

"I have to make sure that Ryuzaki didn't give you a concussion," she said jokingly. She had to stand on her toes since Light didn't have Ryuzaki's chronic slouch, and touched the back of his head where he'd landed after Ryuzaki had tipped the couch. He winced. "Is that a little tender there?"

"Yeah. Jeez, Ryuzaki."

"Do I really have to remind you that you were the one who started it, Light-kun? And you are not bleeding."

"Whatever, Ryuzaki."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Their next date a week later, on Misa's insistence, the four of them went _outside_ of the headquarters. Since Ryuzaki absolutely refused to remove the handcuffs, the two of them endured odd looks and fed those who asked a ridiculous story about losing a bet. While Light allowed Misa to hang on him while making it clear through his facial expression that he did _not_ enjoy it, Ryuzaki wouldn't let Asami close enough to try it. In fact, when they got into the restaurant, he insisted that Light and himself sit on one side of the table, while Asami and Misa sat on the other.

"Ryuzaki!" Misa scolded. "Just because you don't like displaying your affection in public doesn't mean that Light and I shouldn't be able to sit together on our date!"

"Misa, calm down," Light whispered. "We're trying to be low key here, so you can't scream like that, okay?" For not liking her at all, he was so gentle.

She humphed and said "Fine." Then, as an after thought, "Asami-chan, do you have any games on your phone? I only have my work one, and that's got nothing on it. Because I'm not allowed," she finished mocking whoever had forbidden her from having games on all her phones and sticking out her tongue. Asami wondered if she was on her period as she opened her phone and hit the power button. The first thing that came up was a "New Voicemail", which was to be expected since she wasn't allowed to keep it on at headquarters. She hit listen later, since to listen would be rude, and it changed to a "Missed Call". That would be fine to check, she thought, and hit "View Now".

"Kira-chan", it read, and just below it was the time, 8:48, only two minutes ago. Beneath it was another one from 8:47, and 8:44, and 8:41, and 8:39. Then her phone rang with a call from, surprise, Akira.

"Sorry," she said softly. "He's called me five times in the past ten minutes, something must be up." She hit "Send" and had barely said hello when her brother started talking.

"Where the fuck have you been?!" For Akira to drop the f-bomb, it must have been serious. He never swore. "I've been trying to get to you for past half an hour! Why the hell haven't you been picking up?!"

"Woah, Kira-chan, calm down. I was at headquarters; you know I can't have my phone on there."

"Whatever! You need to get to Ibaraki Hospital _NOW_!"

"Why? What happened?" she asked, her voice starting to rise with panic. Someone was in the hospital…

"Tarou was shot!"

Asami didn't listen to what he said next, about his friend being on patrol when they witnessed a drive-by shooting and called an ambulance, how it wasn't looking good and that he was in the OR. It was all she could do to keep the phone in her trembling hand.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Asami tried to get to her feet, but her legs failed her, sending her to the floor. All three of them called her name, but Ryuzaki's version stood out for some reason. It took her a moment for her to realize that it was because he had knelt next to her and put his fingertips on her shoulders. "Asami-san, is something wrong?"

"What do you think, Ryuzaki?" Light asked, standing behind him and looking at her like a concerned brother. "Asami-chan, what happened? I heard Akira on the other line, and… I didn't hear what he was saying, but he sounded… scared. What's going on?"

She pulled herself closer to Ryuzaki and stammered, "T-tarou's in the h-hospital. He's b-been… shot!"

"Which hospital?" Ryuzaki asked.

"I-Ibaraki." Hot tears were streaming from her eyes.

He handed Light his cell phone and said, "Please call Watari and tell him to come to the restaurant _now_." As he flipped through the contacts, Ryuzaki wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. He imitated what she had done for him while he'd been sick, and said, "Hush, Asami-san. It will be all right."

She sobbed onto his shoulder. "I'm scared. Th-things like drive-by sh-shootings are only statistics. Th-th-they're not s-supposed to h-happen. N-not to m-my f-family!"

"Sh… listen to me. Please calm down for just a moment and listen to me. Watari will take you to the hospital, and you will be able to see your brother. Then you will call us at headquarters and…"

"No," she whispered. "St-stay with me. Please d-don't make me go in th-there by myself."

He sighed. "All right. Of course, Yagami-kun and Misa-san will come too." She nodded and sobbed again. "Hush."

"Ryuzaki, Watari just said he'll be here in two minutes," Light said, snapping the phone shut and handing it back to its owner.

"Good," he said. Then, to Asami, "Come now. Stand up." She stood as he did, still hanging onto him as though for dear life. He stroked her hair in hopes it would have the same calming effect on her as it had him. It did, though only slightly. "Now let go, please. It will be very hard to walk there like this." That she didn't listen to, but only held on tighter. "Yagami-kun… please help."

Light rolled his eyes at him and put his hand on Asami's shoulder, suddenly gentle rather than annoyed. "Come on, Asami. Watari's coming in a minute. We should wait outside." She opened her eyes to look at him briefly, and then closed them. She gave Ryuzaki a squeeze inside her hug before releasing him, and leaned on his shoulder as he led her outside.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

After an hour of sitting with Akira in the waiting room, anxious for any news of Tarou, Asami had run out of tears. Dry-eyed, her head rested on Ryuzaki's shoulder, who she'd introduced to Akira as "a friend", although he had his suspicions with how close she sat to him and the way his hand rested lightly on her shoulder while she sobbed quietly. The tearless whimpers were the only sound in the room, and had been since Akira had given her an idea about what had happened.

Witnesses had reported a convertible with several young men who appeared drunk, even at seven o'clock, passing by the street. One of the witnesses thought he might have seen a gun on one of them, but couldn't be certain because the driver was speeding.

The three men and two women who had been in the vicinity, one of the women being Tarou's girlfriend, Hana, who was also injured, all confirmed that the attack was unwarranted and seemed to be a random act of violence.

The door handle was astonishingly loud in the hollow room, only occupied by Light, Ryuzaki, Misa, Asami and Akira, and the latter two jumped to their feet, Asami half dragging Ryuzaki with her.

"What's going on?"

"Is he okay?"

"Is he out of critical condition?"

The young man's expression changed from solemn to overwhelmed at the barrage of questions. "Please sit down?" he half instructed and half asked. Although he didn't say it, his face read, _I've never done this before_.

"You are Nakamura Akira and Asami, Tarou's siblings, correct?"

"Yes," Akira answered for both of them.

"I'm sorry." Asami covered her mouth with her hand. She suddenly was able to cry again. He put up his hands and said quickly, "He's not dead!"

"…Well, that's good," Akira said somewhat sarcastically. "There's a "but…" though, isn't there?"

"…Yes. He's in a coma, and we're not sure if he's going to come out."

"That's a pretty big "but"!" Akira shouted, standing again.

"Woah, easy, now! It's not as bad as it could be! From where he was hit, he could have easily lost all brain function and been legally dead." He took a deep breath and proceeded to explain that the long term prognosis was unclear at this point, but in a few days to a few weeks, they would probably know, when he woke up, progressed to a vegetative state, or died. "If you'd like to see him…"

Asami mouthed, "yes", and took Ryuzaki's hand. "Come… please?"

He stood somewhat reluctantly and pulled Light with him. Then, when as few eyes as possible were on him (only Akira's and Light's out of the corner of his peripheral vision), he brushed his lips against hers for a moment so brief and fleeting it could barely be called a kiss. "It will be all right, love," he whispered in English so Misa, who hadn't taken English in high school, would not catch him giving Asami a pet name like "love". She would never let him live it down.

Asami looked at him in surprise before she smiled a little, the tears still snaking down her face. "Thanks," she whispered. Fingers still entwined and Light trailing awkwardly, they followed Akira to Tarou's room.

Her hand clamped down on Ryuzaki's when the door slid open to reveal Tarou, eyes closed, a meter or more of bandage wrapped around his head, hooked up to machines through at least ten wires and tubes sticking out of his body and out from under the sheets. He squeezed back a little.

She let go with a shuddering breath and walked over to join Akira by their brother's side. "Ten minutes?" the doctor said quietly.

"Fine."

Asami sat by a hospital bed for the second time in less than a month and held her brother's hand. "Hey, Tarou-chan," she whispered. She half expected him to squeeze her hand a little, the way Ryuzaki had done the first day when he'd been fairly unresponsive to her.

Of course, he didn't.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Somehow, by the time they got back to headquarters, Soichiro, Aizawa, Matsuda and Mogi had all heard of the unexpected turn the date had taken, and all gave Asami looks of sympathy as she passed, up the stairs and into her room on the sixth floor. She didn't stay there for long, however.

As Light finished the annoying task of feeding his night shirt through the hand cuff and onto his body, there was a knock on the door of the room he and Ryuzaki shared. "Light? Ryuzaki?" Asami called softly from outside.

"Come in, Asami-san."

She stuck her head in and glanced around. "I can't sleep," she whispered. "I… it's too cold in my room. Do you mind if I stay here?" She sounded like a toddler who'd had a bad dream.

Ryuzaki glanced at Light before saying, "No, it's fine, love."

"Thank you," she mumbled, and came in the rest of the way. The long blanket she'd brought with her dragged across the floor and made it very hard to believe that her room was really too cold for her.

Nevertheless, Ryuzaki parted the covers on his bed for her, and she crawled under them, sitting up against the head board. She seemed unable to look at him, even as he touched her hand and asked if she was all right.

"I don't want to kick you out of your bed," she said softly. Her eyes were fixed on his hand, lying on top of her own.

"You are not kicking me anywhere, love. The bed is far bigger than I am used to anyway." He tried giving her hand a slight massage to try to get a relevant answer, then touched her cheek and even shook her a little. She would not respond appropriately, only saying over and over that she would leave soon, thanks for warming her up. Finally, he gave in and resorted to his last option.

He kissed her.

"Please wake up now, Asami-san," he whispered as he pulled away.

Slightly breathless, she asked, "May I ask… why you just did that, Ryuzaki?" Her face wore the beginnings of a giddy smile.

"I cannot say that I know," he said. "Perhaps it is because I have never allowed anyone to get as close to me as often as I have you, but I find that you are an exception to my general dislike of human contact. I find it quite puzzling that I even want to initiate the contact myself. Very odd, and even a bit frustrating," he muttered with his eyes half closed.

She giggled as though intoxicated and leaned in to kiss him this time. "I love you too."

His eyes widened to their usual size. "I beg your pardon?"

"I… love… you…" she said, punctuating each word with a kiss, "too…"

"I-If you would slow down, Asami-san… I believe this is becoming quite the awkward experience for Yagami-kun…"

It was a lame excuse, but it worked. "I'm sorry, Light. I'll stop now… but you don't mind if I stay here, with you two…?"

He sighed. "Sure, just… keep it down."

"Hey, don't imply that we're going to get… intimate," she almost yelled.

"I didn't," he lied.

"Whatever!" she said, and blew a raspberry at him.

"You seem a bit excited, considering the state of your brother, Asami-san."

Her face fell. "I know. I just… want to forget, to be able to sleep, you know? I hear all these awful stories about sleep deprivation because of a family crisis like this, and… I don't want to be a wreck again."

Although he puzzled over the use of "again" afterwards, he said without a moment's hesitation, "I understand."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Asami fell asleep in Ryuzaki's arms long before he or Light did. She was curled up facing him with her head resting in the crook of her elbow, and Ryuzaki's fingers danced across her cheek and forehead, through her hair and down her back.

Light watched from his bed, rolling his lip in between his teeth in concern. Once he could be sure Asami was asleep, he addressed his roommate.

"Ryuzaki…"

"Yes, Yagami-kun?" His voice held a certain tone of bliss few alive had ever heard.

Light took a deep breath. "Do you… do you love her?" Ryuzaki's eyes widened a little and looked up in confusion. "I mean… you're not just using her, are you?"

"It's not like you to be so inarticulate, Yagami-kun. The act of womanizing must really concern you." He paused, but not long enough for Light to retaliate. "I cannot say for certain that I love her… although, you must understand that I am not entirely aware of what the word means in context with one's emotions. I can say that I care about her very deeply, and I despise seeing her in any sort of pain… I may have asked you to use Misa-san in the investigations, but you are right. It is a terrible thing to play with another person's emotions, especially those like affection."

"In that case, you wouldn't ever hurt her, would you?" When their eyes met, Ryuzaki could see the look that he had come to interpret as Light's look of passionate concern in them, even while he was laying on his side to allow for the handcuffs.

That triggered a red flag in his mind. _Asami-san was also very upset at the thought of domestic violence… someone both of them know, and perhaps even Asami-san herself, was a victim… I will have to keep that in mind…_

"I am surprised you think so little of my character, Yagami-kun. While I can understand why you think I would be willing to lead a woman to believe that I feel affection for her where there is none, I do not understand why nor on what grounds you have reason to suspect that I would harm her, or any other woman for that matter."

"Just a precaution…"

_I knew it,_ he said to himself. _Her last boyfriend, Hitoshi… it must have been him. That would have been an experience traumatic enough that she would steer clear of romance for two years... I would like to find out the details, but she is in no condition to share emotionally traumatic experiences now. I will have to be patient…_

He closed is eyes and tried to fight the caffeine in his system that came from the (unpaid for) cup of coffee in the restaurant.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Review response time!

YourRedRightAnkle: Glad you liked it, and I'm glad you found all the "medical mumbo-jumbo" satisfactory. I spent so many hours researching the stuff, almost more than time spent on my big government paper o_O. It's my favorite chapter too, but I'm a little weird... Thanks for your review!

Happycookbook: Sorry for worrying you, but I can't seriously do anything to him; we're only half way through! You're right, it is, and I'm getting pretty excited about it already. Thanks so much!

Kerezteny:Glad you can relate. I've never been in a relationship, so I was afraid I didn't get it right. Hope you like this chapter too! Thanks for reviewing!

Volital: ... I'll take that as an "I like it..." Thanks for reviewing!

Read and review to get a response! This now includes everyone who doesn't have an account or whatever. You no longer have an excuse! Anyway, tell me if you think this was all right, as this was the first one that I had to change major things the second time I went over it. Let me know, please!

LK


	9. I

**AH! How did it get to be a two month time gap?! I'm so, so, so, so, (you get the point) SORRY EVERYONE! November and December definitely should not have been next to each other this year. Two busy months in a row is crazy! I won't go into everything that I was doing instead of writing due to not being at home and fatigue and annoying roadblocks, but know that I did not intentionally let this go for as long as I did.**

**One of the many reasons this wasn't posted sooner is my new story, Third, which I started even though I promised myself I would not have two stories going at once, but... you can see how well my promises to myself work out. Anyway, I invite everyone here to read (and review!) it, especially Matt and Mello fans. **

**But enough advertising! The long awaited Chapter 9!  
**

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Asami spent two months sleeping in Ryuzaki's bed with him every night that he and Light actually slept in their beds, despite her promising every time that it would be the last. Every night she had a different reason, ranging from the temperature to nonexistent noise. And while Ryuzaki seemed to accept the ridiculous excuses, even though Light knew he couldn't possibly believe them, the duo knew the real reason.

After eight weeks, Tarou was still in a coma (1).

During the day, Asami kept her distance as was agreed and did her work with Light while Ryuzaki spun in his chair and ate cake and sweets. Almost no progress was made for two months.

Until, on the second of October, Light made a meaningful discovery.

"Asami, come here for a second," he said in a voice that was almost… excited. On his computer screen were several charts showing the stock values of three companies, and in another window, a little table he'd thrown together. "You too, Ryuzaki."

"Hmm?" Ryuzaki asked, propelling himself over to Light's chair without enthusiasm. Upon seeing the charts, however, he put his finger to his lip and smiled a little. "Yagami-kun…"

Asami was impressed too. "Wow… good job, computer wizard. How long have you been working on this?"

"Not too long, considering how much work it would normally be to go through all the information on here. I looked at all the cases of heart attacks in Japan, not just criminals, and found these three. A Vice President from Sekimaru Corporation, a director of Aoi Industries, and a Yotsuba former Vice president died of a heart attack within a month of each other. All three of them had a considerable amount of influence in the business world, and their companies were all affected by their deaths. But while Aoi and Sekimaru suffered, Yotsuba's stocks have been rising."

"So you also looked at other deaths involving businesses?"

"Yeah, and here are the rest of the results." He brought up another window. "Thirteen deaths were beneficial to Yotsuba, while other companies only benefited from one or two, and all of those also benefited Yotsuba. All of the deaths were due to accident or disease except for three: one committed suicide and the other two were killed by Kira after they were indicted for corruption…"

"If at least those three deaths are connected to Kira…" Ryuzaki began.

"Then we can be pretty sure that Kira is supporting Yotsuba," Light continued, "but if that's the case then…" Ryuzaki joined him and they said in unison, "Kira's killings are not limited to heart attacks."

"Th-that was really creepy," Matsuda whispered.

"Tell me about it. You freaks," she said playfully.

"Come on, Asami; don't tell me you're not excited. If we're right about this, the case can start moving forward again. This Kira's obviously not solely focused on killing criminals, and that'll make him much easier to find. We might be able to solve it by Christmas! Then we can all go home."

"Yeah. That'll be great," she said unenthusiastically. Her eyes flickered to Ryuzaki, who had positioned himself to better review the data by putting one of his feet on Light's chair. The sudden realization made a lump form in her throat. _When the case ends… I'll never see him again…_

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Chief! Mogi! Welcome back!" He didn't wait for them to greet him before starting on their discovery. "Everything's going so well! Thanks to Light-kun's research, we've been able to connect Kira to Yotsuba!"

"Yotsuba?"

"Yes…"

"Yes, that's probably it…" Matsuda looked at him in confusion and Asami joined the circle. "The director said just now that Kira has been bribing politicians. But because of it…" he struggled with the words, "the police have officially given up on the Kira case."

"What? Given up?" Asami asked.

"Yes… I've spoken to Mogi, and he's determined to stay here, as am I. But Matsuda, Aizawa, if you want to continue working on the case, you'll have to join me and resign. We are no longer able to work on the case with L as police officers. The director told me that if we continue to work on the case, we will be fired."

"Y-you're really going to quit, Chief?" Matsuda asked in disbelief.

"Absolutely." He turned to focus more on Matsuda and Aizawa since Asami had never been a member of the police. "I want each of you to think carefully about this. We aren't just risking our own lives anymore…"

"Yeah, especially if you have a wife and kids…"

"Be careful, Matsuda," Asami hissed.

"I think you all should go back to the police. I was alone when this case began, and I'm grateful to all of you for staying for as long as you have. And thanks to that, I can finish this case on my own, and see that all of you witness the conclusion of this case."

"Don't talk like that, Ryuzaki," Asami scolded. "This doesn't affect me. I'm not leaving before I have to, and Light's chained to you until he's proven innocent." She walked over to him and took the hand that wasn't holding two cherries, the only form of affection he would allow. "You're not going to be alone."

"That's right, Yagami-kun will stay until Kira is caught, but I would even prefer that you return to your job, Asami-san." She ruffled his hair to let him know that it definitely wasn't happening. "I see… That goes for the rest of you as well. You should return to the police."

"But you said yourself that you needed the cooperation of the police to end this case," Soichiro protested.

"Yes, but that was because I could rely on them as an organization during incidents like Sakura TV. Two or three ex-officers do not count as the police. And the police have decided not to pursue Kira anyway."

"I… it's true that not being on the force, we wouldn't be as helpful, but what about our feelings? We've come close to a year risking our lives for this case. We should be able to make the final decision for ourselves."

"You're right. In that case, please decide." He pulled the two stems from his mouth to reveal a tiny knot tying them together. Asami covered her mouth to stop her very inappropriate giggling fit. _So that myth is true…_

"But Chief," Aizawa said now that the subject had been reverted back to their predicament. "If you quit the force, you're technically unemployed. Even if we catch Kira, what will happen after that?"

"Well, I can't say I've really thought about that much, but after Kira is brought to justice, I suppose I'll have to start job-hunting," he said with a smile.

At first, the two of them seemed a little stunned that their chief had used a term like "job-hunting", but then Matsuda brightened and declared his stance. "I've decided too! I'm gonna quit and go after Kira! I've got the job as Misa-Misa's manager, so I'm not going to be totally unemployed. I only got the job because of my dad anyway; he'll be disappointed, but I'm old enough to make my own decisions. Besides that, I'll feel like a loser if I quit now!"

"Matsu!"

"Watch what you say, Matsuda!"

Everyone but Ryuzaki, who was occupied with his cherries, gave Aizawa sympathetic looks. "Ryuzaki," he said after he considered for a minute, "what if I go back to the police, but work here in my free time?"

Everyone, even Aizawa, knew the answer before Ryuzaki spoke. "No. If you return to the police, please don't come back here. I will assume that anyone with the police is an enemy, since they have stopped hunting Kira."

"I won't leak any information-"

"You won't be able to. If you go back to the police, but come here, we will never share the results of the investigation with you. You are free to go after Kira yourself, but to throw away your job and inconvenience your family for the sake of the case… I don't believe that is right."

"No one will judge you for backing out now, Aizawa," Soichiro said comfortingly.

"Yeah! We're not going to think of you as a traitor or anything!"

"But Chief, you have a family too…"

"We're not in the same situation. My children are almost grown; yours are still young and need their father."

The conversation halted for a moment. Then, "It's not fair… I want to keep going too. I was prepared to die, until now. But how will I be able to face Ukita if I quit now?" he argued with himself. "Damn it! Why can't a police officer go after a criminal!?"

There was a sudden beep from all the computers and Watari's capital "W" flashed on the screen. "Ryuzaki, when you first showed your face to everyone, you had me make arrangements to support them financially should anything ever happen, including if they were fired from the NPA. Why haven't you mentioned that?"

"Don't provide information unnecessarily, Watari."

"I'm sorry." Click.

"So we've been taken care of financially?" Matsuda asked in awe. "This is great! Now you don't have to worry about being unemployed, Aizawa; as long as you don't mind giving up your title, everything's fine!"

Surprisingly, Aizawa wasn't as happy as Matsuda. "Ryuzaki…" he said. "You were watching to see if I would go back to the police or stay here, weren't you?"

Everyone was a little to quick to rush to his defense. "Of course not! Ryuzaki just doesn't like to say things like that himself."

"Yeah, you know he can be weird like that…"

_Please don't say anything, Ryuzaki. Don't be stupid,_ she pleaded. _Don't drive him away too…_

It didn't work.

"No. I was testing him. I wanted to see which he would choose."

The room was dead silent while Aizawa's face contorted in anger. "Fine. I've made up my mind. I'm leaving and going back to the police."

"Aizawa!"

"I couldn't decide as quickly as you, and I was leaning toward going back to the NPA."

"Well, don't do it just because of that…" Matsuda said lamely.

"No, I've made up my mind. I understand it now. I hate Ryuzaki… the way he works, his methods, everything!" Asami winced at the harsh words. He headed toward the elevator.

"That's a very normal reaction," Ryuzaki said calmly. "Although I like people like Aizawa-san."

He almost stopped on his way out, but then started again and yelled back, "I also hate how you say stuff like that! I quit!"

"Take care."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Hey, guys," Asami said as she poked her head in to make sure the two young men were dressed for bed, Light in pajama like pants and shirt and Ryuzaki in his normal clothes. She was almost certain he'd never worn pajamas.

"Hi," Light said absently. Since Aizawa had walked out he had been especially resentful of the man at the other end of the chain. Ryuzaki was of course oblivious, or at least appeared to be oblivious.

"Good evening, love," he said while she settled next to him.

"Hey, you." She sat next to him and played with his unruly hair for a few minutes before she got the courage to talk about what had been bothering her for hours. "Don't you think you were a little hard on Aizawa?"

"I think he was," Light said immediately. He'd obviously been waiting for her to say it so he could interject his opinion.

Ryuzaki, on the other hand, took his time. "No, I don't," he said after making them wait a few seconds.

"Ryuzaki!"

"If anything," he continued as though Light hadn't interrupted, "I think that he was hard on me."

"Yeah? How do you figure?" Light asked angrily.

"He said he hates me. If I'm not mistaken, most people would consider that fairly harsh."

"Maybe, but you deserved it."

"Light!"

He moved closer and stuck his nose in Ryuzaki's face. "You purposely lead him to believe that he would have to give up his job and leave his wife and two kids without a source of income for god knows how many months just to test his loyalty! I think that gives him the right to say that he hates you, and more than that! With how horrible he must have felt about it, I can't believe he didn't call you an ass too!"

"Light! Stop it!" she yelled. She jumped up and shoved her hands roughly against his chest to force him away from Ryuzaki. He was much stronger than her, but he got the message and backed off to cool his temper. "Maybe Ryuzaki was hard on Aizawa, and maybe he deserves to have Aizawa hate him, but you two are friends! Cut it out!"

Light took a deep, calming breath. "Ryuzaki, I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation. Think about it, but don't take it too seriously." He lifted his head and looked at him in confusion. "Let's say that you and Asami got… intimate, and she got pregnant. And somehow, I don't care if it's actually possible or not, you lost all the money you have, and had to pick between working on this case and giving up the position of L to work somewhere so that you could support her. What would you do?"

There was an odd look on his face when he said, "That is quite an impossible situation, Yagami-kun. I would never have to make that sort of decision."

Light growled. "_You're_ impossible! I ask you just to think about what you would do and you say it's never going to happen! I knew that it would never happen; I just wanted you to think about it! It's called "empathy" Ryuzaki, ever heard of it?!"

He swallowed and said, "I am aware of the word, Yagami-kun, but the feeling itself is rather foreign to me. As you may have noticed, I do not experience emotions on the same level as most human beings…"

"Whatever. Good night," he said, flopping onto his bed hard. He yanked the chain forward and pulled Ryuzaki to the floor. Asami couldn't tell if it was intentional or not, but became worried when he sat sprawled on the carpet.

"Are you okay, Ryuzaki?" she whispered, soft enough so Light wouldn't hear (hopefully). He didn't move. "He didn't hurt you, did he?" She put both her hands on his face and lifted it to hers to kiss him. He received it, but didn't kiss back. "What's wrong?"

"If his hypothetical, or, part of it, were true…"

"Ryuzaki, I'm not going to get pregnant!"

"Love, you cannot deny that intimacy is the direction in which we are moving rather rapidly."

"So you're saying that if I was pregnant, you wouldn't want the baby?"

"Please, love, it is not black and white. Do not make it appear so." He took her hand and continued, not meeting her eyes, "If… you were to become pregnant, I would certainly not abandon you. But you must understand that this is not the best time to be thinking about children."

"I know that… I was just curious." She sniffed and her voice broke suddenly. "I'm not going to get pregnant anyway."

"You are very certain. Why?"

"I just am. I don't want to talk about it right now." Her tone, already hushed like his, dropped even more. "Not around Light."

"That may make telling me rather difficult, love."

"He's not going to be chained to you forever," she said with an air of certainty as she snuggled closer to him. "I'll be able to be alone with you when this case is over, and we can do whatever we want. Talk about Light and Misa behind their back; break your collar-bone rule, whatever. Whatever we want…" She trailed off and rested her head against his shoulder. "I love you…" He hugger her tighter in a non-verbal response.

Only then did it occur to her: in the eight week's they'd been "together", he'd not once said, "I love you" back.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**10/8/04**

Asami watched her computer screen without particular interest, as it seemed Light was doing next to her. His eyes were fixed on a point above the left corner of his monitor, probably thinking about the two new members of the task force and the new plan that could now be put into action.

Asami had decided immediately that she liked Aiber, although that might have something to do with his being a con-man, the job itself getting people to like and trust him. Wedy, on the other hand, was standoffish and impolite, and seemed to think of people only in terms of what they owned: items for the taking as far as she was concerned. It wasn't that she disliked the woman, who had a strong personality and an admirable independence, just the way she behaved, different from how she viewed Misa, who even Asami, with her forgiving personality, could dub as nothing but an airhead with an unfortunate and unbreakable attachment to her baby brother.

"Yagami-kun."

Light looked around for a moment as though he'd forgotten where Ryuzaki was before he said, "Hmm?"

"Why the serious face?"

"I'm tired from staring at the screen all day, that's all," he said nonchalantly. He'd been thinking about something…

He wiggled his mouse over the screen to wake it up, even though there was no need. "I hacked into their system, but there's nothing here that would suggest they're involved with Kira."

"Well, they are professionals; you didn't really expect them to leave any evidence, did you Light?"

"Of course not. It would have been great if they had left some signs of it, an e-mail or something, but I guess not…"

Ryuzaki bent his head sideways to get a "better" look at the screen. He seemed impressed. "With hacking skills like these, you could even break through the firewalls the NPA has…"

Cornered. Asami knew herself that Light occasionally went into the police files to follow cases. But it was innocent enough… wasn't it?

"Why are you still saying things like that, Ryuzaki? I know you still suspect me, but pay attention to what's going on right now."

Reluctantly, the detective said, "Yes, you're right. The current Kira's capture will bring us a step closer to the final solution of this case."

"Ryuzaki."

He hopped back onto his own chair and looked at his computer for the first time in more than an hour. "What is it, Watari?"

"The detective known as Eraldo Coil has been asked to uncover L's identity. They went through two agents to hide the source, but I've traced the request to Yotsuba's Tokyo office vice president of Rights and Planning, Kida Masahiko. Reward is 100,000 US dollars up front and $1,400,000 on completion."

"Good job Watari," he said calmly. Asami was panicking. They obviously wanted his identity uncovered so they could assassinate him…

"Eraldo Coil is supposed to be one of the best detectives after L," Yagami said, "And he's famous for taking any job so long as it pays well. He's one of the best when it comes to locating missing people…"

"If Yotsuba is connected to Kira and they're the ones trying to find you, that means they'll kill you once Coil does."

"This could get bad," Yagami muttered. "We're already short-handed and now we have to worry about Coil too. And he's like L: no one knows what he looks like either."

"There's nothing to worry about." Asami whipped her head around to look at him, astonished that he could say something like that. Until she heard what followed.

"Eraldo Coil is also me."

Yagami voiced everyone's shock. "_You're_ Coil, too?"

"Yes. The world's top three detectives, L, Coil, and Deneuve are all me. Just don't tell anyone. People trying to uncover L's identity usually fall for this. Of course, Watari acts as the intermediary for all three of them, so it's obvious if you deal with more than one of them."

Light chuckled while his quick fingers twitched over his keyboard. "Nice one, Ryuzaki." A page popped up with a profile on it. "There he is. Kida Masahiko. He's definitely on the Yotsuba employee list."

"It's hard to believe that a Vice President would be able to move around so much money, even one from a company as big as Yotsuba. Does that mean he's Kira?"

"We can't say that for sure, Dad."

"Why not? It wouldn't be hard for Kira to get money out of Yotsuba. In fact, he'd be able to do it with just the fact that he is Kira."

"If he was doing that, couldn't he just threaten to kill the company president and not bother doing anything for them? If he was getting money from them, he wouldn't have to kill people to advance their business."

"Asami-san is right. It is presumptive to assume that Kida is Kira with the evidence we have. Now that we have this, we can put a plan into action, and use Aiber and Wedy's skills."

Ten minutes later, the plan was explained, clarified and ready to be gone over again. "First, Aiber and Wedy will…"

"Ryuzaki."

"Yes, Watari?" he asked, only slightly irritated by the interruption.

"Matsuda has sent out a distress signal from inside the Yotsuba Tokyo office."

"What is he thinking?! If he's uncovered…"

"If he sent a distress signal, he probably has been already," Light pointed out.

After a moment of silence, Aiber said, "He'll probably be killed."

Ryuzaki let out a long and uncharacteristic sigh. "Forget everything we just discussed. We'll have to rethink the plan. Stupid Matsuda…"

And so the analysis began…

"Matsuda is supposed to be with Amane at all times outside of the building," Yagami said slowly. "That should mean that they're both in Yotsuba"

"Remember Dad, this is Matsuda we're talking about. With him, it could be either one."

"When Matsuda-san is outside, he only has identification as Matsui Tarou, Amane Misa's manager, correct, Yagami-san?"

"Yes."

He nodded. "Yagami-san, please call Matsuda-san's cell phone."

Asami was confused, but Light understood perfectly. "Isn't that dangerous, Ryuzaki?"

"I think I'll pull it off."

They waited tensely for Matsuda to pick up. When he did, Ryuzaki didn't even wait for him to say anything before he put on a ridiculous face and introduced himself as Asahi. After the response, he said, "Doesn't sound like you're outside. You home?" A short reply, probably a yes. "You alone?" That was clearly a yes, because he covered the mouth piece and said, "Matsuda-san is in Yotsuba alone." Then he went back to the conversation without missing a beat.

"Wanna go have a drink?" That was a "no". "Why? Is your wallet in _trouble_ again?" he said, putting a subtle emphasis on the word "trouble". "Matsuda's in trouble," he said quickly. "I'll invite you next time then. Later." Asami giggled hearing Ryuzaki using such casual terms. He then hung up and directed Light to call his "girlfriend".

"It's off," he said as the message played. "She's probably still filming." He switched to pretend boyfriend mode and reluctantly left a message instructing her to call back when she got the message.

"What happens now, Ryuzaki?" Yagami asked. "Matsuda is probably alone, and from the sound of that call, he's being watched."

"Yes, it seems he's gotten himself in very big trouble. Although, if he's killed now, we will have conclusive evidence against Yotsuba…"

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ Asami screamed mentally. She was grateful for the quick subject change.

"Anyway, if we make a drastic move now, we'll only attract unwanted attention. For now we just have to wait."

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

It took several hours, but things started moving again when Light's phone suddenly rang.

"It's Misa," he announced. "Misa, it's me. Where's Matsuda?"

"Straight to business, isn't he?" Asami muttered.

"Misa's getting a call from Matsuda."

They waited impatiently while Misa sorted things out with her "manager". The moment she re-focused her attention on Light, he said, "Misa, listen to me. Do not go to Yotsuba… no, that's not it…"

"Yagami-kun, if Misa-san goes to Yotsuba, we may be able to save Matsuda-san. Misa-san will do as you say."

"Hold on for a second, Misa."

"If Kira is with them, Matsuda-san will be killed. So, he must "die" before they get the chance."

"So we arrange an accident, and to get them to somewhere we can control, we have to use Misa?"

"Precisely."

In a moment, Ryuzaki had mapped out a plan to kill Matsuda. Cause of death, "drunken accident".

"How does that sound?" he asked even though it as a given that they would go with his plan.

"It's not like we have much of a choice." He then swung the phone up to his ear to pass it on. "Misa, listen carefully."

"…Okay? We'll take care of everything else. With your beauty, it should work," he added on. Asami could hear the excitement on the other end even though the words were unclear.

Now, all that was left was to wait.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

Half an hour later, the eight men who had caught Matsuda outside their meeting room were in the building, being watched on the security cameras while they relaxed, a supermodel per businessman. After a sufficient amount of time had passed, Matsuda announced quietly that he was going to the bathroom, subtly grabbed his phone from the table, and rushed down the hallway to call the rest of the team watching only a few floors away.

"Are you watching, Ryuzaki?"

"Yes."

"The eight of them were having a meeting to decide who Kira's next victims would be. It's definitely one of them."

"That would be amazing if it were true," he said. "But if you overheard them, they will try to kill you."

"Yeah, I thought so… Isn't there anything I can do?" He was beginning to panic.

"You're still alive, so there could be a way for you to live through this. In order for it to work though, you must die before you are killed."

A visibly shaken Matsuda listened to the instructions while everyone else prepared to move into place.

"Do I get to be an EMT, Ryuzaki?" Asami asked anxiously as Ryuzaki and Light worked the uniforms on over the handcuffs.

"No. I would actually prefer if you stayed here and made sure nothing unexpected happens during this little stunt of ours."

That seemed a little unfair to her, that everyone else had a distinct role in the operation while hers was watchdog, but she said nothing. However, Ryuzaki read her expressions easily.

"This job is very necessary, Asami-san," he assured her. "If you were not a part of this team, things could get very out of hand without us knowing and we could be discovered. It is very important that you are watching to contact us if anything goes wrong."

His worries turned out to be, as usual, very misplaced. Matsuda's "drunken" stunt went seamlessly and the businessmen were ushered out of the building without a hitch.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

"Ryuzaki, I have to talk to you."

"These late night chats are becoming alarmingly frequent, Yagami-kun," he said softly to not wake Asami. "What is it?"

"You kept her here," he said softly with a tiny gesture to the woman in Ryuzaki's arms. "You kept her here, safe, while you had Misa go right out in the open and risk her life. Doesn't that strike you as a little imbalanced?"

"I thought you said you had no affection for Misa-san whatsoever…"

"That doesn't mean I want her to get killed!" he hissed. "She's just a civilian; she shouldn't be involved with the investigation at all! Stop distracting me. If I was in charge of the investigation, I probably would have done the same thing you did, because she's like my sister. But don't you think it's a little selfish to place her in front of Misa just because you're romantically involved with her?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, Yagami-kun; her position was just as important as Misa-san's…"

"Don't give me that!" he whispered angrily. "I'm not an idiot. I know you're trying to protect her. I want her safe too, but not if you're going to put Misa on the front line. And it's not just me. She's going to realize it too, and she's going to get involved with something you told her to stay out of just to piss you off, and she'll get hurt because it's not a part of the plan. I don't want her getting hurt, Ryuzaki."

"Neither do I," he whispered back.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

(1)- The longer someone stays in a coma, the less likely it is they'll make a full recovery. The average time after which someone recovers from a coma caused by brain damage is several days to six weeks.

_XXXXXXXXXXXX_

**A record number of reviews last chapter. Apparently, everyone was waiting for the promised first kiss. :)**

Volital- Very glad you liked it so much. Hope this one's just as good.

Kerezteny- Glad you thought it was appropriate. I actually had that in mind while I was coming up with her character, because almost all the LxOCs I've seen, the characters L falls for are a lot like him, a little too much like him, and I personally don't think that would happen, even though most of them are really good. Don't worry about Akira either. An accident with him would probably push Asami over the Mary Sue line... I hope you're not _too _miffed by this long gap between updates. My show is over now, so hopefully nothing like this will ever happen again... until RENT.

YourRedRightAnkle- Haha, yeah. I forgot to include my works sited page on that and I got a 9/10... ANYWAY! I know what you mean. I'm not as emotional as Asami, so those are a bit tricky for me to write. Glad everything came out all right.

Sybil Corvax- Glad you liked it.

CK- Yes, very good with the abbreviations. LK's identity must be kept secret... Anyway... Guessed it would be a random act of violence? I told you! :P And, now that I've updated, you have to go read Third!

Timekeeper101- Yay! You're here! Soon all my other favorite LxOC authors will read my story and be amazed by the writing skill of their reviewer, LK! Anyway... random rant... I'm glad you liked it. I'm really proud of my work now! Hope this one's good too.

Scarlet-Black-Rose- Happy to have you aboard! Here's the update you were waiting for!

marshmallow jam- Good to know _someone's_ interested in that. However, that won't be revealed for a bit... *evil smirk*

The next chapter will be up soon (I hope), and I'm very sorry (again) for the wait.

My never ending apologies,

LK


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